You can't make this stuff up. Seriously. According to President Obama, the NSA is just like
Paul Revere and the Sons of Liberty .
At the dawn of our Republic, a small, secret surveillance committee borne out of the “The Sons of Liberty” was established in Boston. The group’s members included Paul Revere, and at night they would patrol the streets, reporting back any signs that the British were preparing raids against America’s early Patriots....
Ummm... no. I don't think Paul Revere would have been an NSA sort of guy.
He also went on to assure the rest of the world that he wasn't listening on on their phone calls:
... The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures.
This applies to foreign leaders as well. Given the understandable attention that this issue has received, I’ve made clear to the intelligence community that unless there is a compelling national security purpose, we will not monitor the communications of heads of state and government of our close friends and allies....
Good luck explaining that to German Chancellor Merkel, considering that President Obama personally approved tapping her telephone.
President Obama then trotted out the old claim that the NSA program could have prevented 9/11:
...The program grew out of a desire to address a gap identified after 9/11. One of the 9/11 hijackers—Khalid al-Mihdhar—made a phone call from San Diego to a known al Qaeda safe-house in Yemen. NSA saw that call, but could not see that it was coming from an individual already in the United States. The telephone metadata program under Section 215 was designed to map the communications of terrorists, so we can see who they may be in contact with as quickly as possible....
Well, it sure didn't prevent the Tsarnaev brothers from bombing the Boston Marathon last year,
even after the Russians warned us the two were up to something.
So, how is the NSA reforming the NSA civil espionage program?
...Effective immediately, we will only pursue phone calls that are two steps removed from a number associated with a terrorist organization instead of three. And I have directed the Attorney General to work with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court so that during this transition period, the database can be queried only after a judicial finding, or in a true emergency....
Wow. That's comforting. I feel a whole lot better now. :rolleyes:
Here is the Fourth Amendment:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
, in President Obama's long speech, did he mention it. President Obama used to be a constitutional law professor. Not a good one, I'd wager.
Onward and upward,
airforce
