Intelligence leaders push back against leakers, media

[alp227]

Source: Washington Post

Top intelligence officials in the Obama administration and Congress are pushing back against journalists responsible for revealing the existence of sensitive surveillance programs and calling for an investigation into who leaked the information.

Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. said in an interview late Saturday that the National Security Agency has launched a Justice Department investigation into the leaks to determine who is responsible.

But he also sought to spotlight the media who first reported the programs, calling their disclosures irresponsible and full of “hyperbole.” Earlier Saturday, he had issued a statement accusing the media of a “rush to publish.”

“For me, it is literally — not figuratively — literally gut-wrenching to see this happen because of the huge, grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities,” Clapper told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/intelligence-leaders-push-back-on-leakers-media/2013/06/09/fff80160-d122-11e2-a73e-826d299ff459_story.html

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The Guardian: "US surveillance has 'expanded' under Obama, says Bush's NSA director"

Asked on Fox News Sunday how Obama had dealt with NSA programs since coming to office, Hayden replied: "In terms of surveillance? Expanded (the programs) in volume, changed the legal grounding for them a little bit – put it more under congressional authorisation rather than the president's Article 2 powers – and added a bit more oversight. But in terms of what NSA is doing, there is incredible continuity between the two presidents."

[orpupilofnature57]

1. And MSM doesn't like to be shoved, just bought off .

[RobertEarl]

2. Let the war begin

Whose side are we on?

The people's side and our right to freedom from government prying?

Or the government's side of more spying?

Choose quick. Riding the fence will give one a wedgie.

Me? More freedom. Less spying.

[Adam-Bomb]

7. You got that right, friend.

This crap is making me extremely annoyed.

Those "Intelligence" folks need to have the relevant parts
of our Constitution tattooed to the backs of their hands.

[Bigmack]

8. So much for the quaint notion

that the people have a RIGHT, NEED, to know what THEIR government is doing so that they can make INFORMED voting choices..... Ms Bigmack

[idwiyo]

3. Awwww, I really feel for NSA!

[okaawhatever]

4. From the second article:

Defending the mass collection of phone data from telecom providers, revealed on Wednesday when the Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to data from millions of customers, Hayden said the NSA only stores the data for use in future terrorist investigations.

He said that safeguards were in place, ensuring there was always a "probable cause" or "arguable reason" before the database is scrutinised for intelligence about individuals connected to suspects.


Okay, so the info is only stored for use in future terrorist investigations and safeguards are in place. How many thought that from the articles that first came out about this? They didn't address directly whether only international calls were targeted. Finding that out for certain will also make a big difference.

According to Mike Rogers,

Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, condemned the leaks and said the media's sources should be investigated for potential criminal activity.

"Taking a very sensitive classified program that targets foreign person on foreign lands, and putting just enough out there to be dangerous, is dangerous to us, it's dangerous to our national security and it violates the oath of which that person [the whisteblower] took," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "I absolutely think they should be prosecuted."

I think it's journalism when you tell a story in a way that people understand the truth. When you leave out relevant info like Hague mentioned. Sorry, not journalism propaganda.

[PSPS]

5. "stores the data for use"

Defending the mass collection of phone data from telecom providers, revealed on Wednesday when the Guardian published a secret court order requiring Verizon to data from millions of customers, Hayden said the NSA only stores the data for use in future terrorist investigations.

Ah, there's the rub. Leaving out the nonsensical and meaningless use of the word "terrorist" (that means anything you want it to mean,) we simply can't survive as a free country if our every utterance, website visit, email and telephone call is "stored for future use." As soon as you become too much of an irritant as an uppity citizen, out come the "arguable reasons" that let the government go mining your past to create any scenario of "wrongdoing" -- like Blair's "fixing the intelligence."

No thanks.

[JoeyT]

9. Yeah, that's what's known in common parlance as "a lie".

Who believes that there actually are safeguards in place or that "probable cause" would remotely resemble what a reasonable individual would consider probable cause? Have our intelligence agencies *ever* not abused information that came into their possession? Is anyone in any oversight position on this that doesn't have a vested interest in keeping it secret and keeping it going?

So it isn't really relevant information.

"We super secret double promise we aren't misusing your info, but you're not allowed to check!" really doesn't add anything useful.

[okaawhatever]

10. the judges have lifetime appointments. They don't have to lie or cover anyone's butts. I think most

of the warrants require the three judge panel. These are federal appellate level judges. Congress oversees the dept of justice, cia, nsa etc. You also have the President. What you're claiming is paranoia. If the gov't wanted to cheat on this they wouldn't have so many involved. Also, all these so called "revelations" being reported lately don't do anything to show that the process has been abused. If you hate government, so be it. If anyone does what Nixon did, they'll be doing it illegally. If anyone wants to spy on American citizens without a warrant or probable cause, they'll be doing it illegally. The people at the nsa are trying to find terrorists. They take that very seriously. They don't want to listen to your phone calls, they want to catch bad guys.

[JoeyT]

11. I trust my government, why don't you!?

Given our government's illustrious history, thinking they're probably not up to anything good is hardly paranoia. I wouldn't share a hotel room with Manson, no matter how reformed he claims to be, either.

History is a pretty good indicator of current and future activities.

[timdog44]

6. The problem here

is that the Washington Post was complicit in the shoddy reporting on this issue in the first place. So they make their bucks and do not give a damn about the consequences of their actions. I don't use the Sear Catalog, I use the Washington Post. Butt even then I worry that I may be getting dirtier than I started.