Does it make sense or is it fair for Senator Durbin to blame President Obama
for not informing the Senate about the NSA data collection on the basis that "Very few lawmakers avail themselves of such briefings. . . ."
NO!
GIVE ME A BREAK! What is Obama supposed to do to make sure they're informed? Send guards to drag them into the briefings?
If they wanted to know, they'd attend the briefings or they'd read the classified documents they're sent. Clearly, Senators like Durbin just want to complain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/09/us/politics/officials-say-congress-was-fully-briefed-on-surveillance.html
Senior Obama administration officials, including the directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and of national intelligence, have held 13 classified hearings and briefings for members of Congress since 2009 to explain the broad authority they say they have to sweep up electronic records for national security purposes, a senior administration official said Saturday.
The administration, by disclosing the briefings, sought to push back on claims by Democrats and Republicans in Congress that they were either not aware of programs to mine vast amounts of Internet data and business telephone records or were insufficiently briefed on the details.
Lawmakers said that what they knew was vague and broad — and that strict rules of classification prevented them from truly debating the programs or conducting proper oversight.
In separate but identical letters sent on Oct. 19, 2011, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich told two of Congress’s most outspoken critics of the efforts, Senators Ron Wyden of Oregon and Mark Udall of Colorado, both Democrats, that in December 2009 and February 2011 the Justice Department and intelligence agencies provided a classified document to Congress describing the surveillance efforts in detail.
SNIP
But Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s No. 2 Democrat, draws a distinction between the holding of such briefings and the informed consent of Congress. Very few lawmakers avail themselves of such briefings, he suggested, and only the most senior leaders are kept fully abreast of intelligence activities.
= new reply since forum marked as read
for Durbin to blame Obama for Durbin not doing his own job.
<<< Becoming more and more necessary hereabouts.
