We’re all terrorists now
The administration which refuses to call the Fort Hood murderer a terrorist now treats us all like terrorists with their FISA Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court according to Glen Greenwald and Spencer Ackerman writing in The Guardian;
The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America’s largest telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.
The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires Verizon on an “ongoing, daily basis” to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and other countries.
The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.
Their data mining may include other phone carriers, but reporters only uncovered one letter from Verizon. Me? I don’t do anything wrong, so I really don’t care, but it is a huge invasion of our privacy.
The NBC broadcast news tried to blunt the impact of this news by saying “Bush did it, too”, but that’s not exactly true. The Bush administration used it against suspected terrorists and only those calls that were international, but I guess the Obama Administration thinks we’re all terrorists since public opinion has turned against him, we’re all terrorists who bear monitoring. The calls being mined are even wholly made in the United States.
Yeah, if Bush had tried this, they’d be marching in the streets. Funny how this administration can do what Bush was accused of doing with little repercussions.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
So that means I should make sure ahead of time that they have all my phone calls, right? Gee, and I don’t have anyone to call any more to diss Bodaprez over.
They’re so cute when they’re paranoid, aren’t they?
Yeah, if Bush had tried this, they’d be marching in the streets. Funny how this administration can do what Bush was accused of doing with little repercussions.
That’s because the dems have become the biggest pile of hypocrites the nation has ever seen….but because our nation is full of lying sack of sh1t hypocrites nobody seems to mind. In fact when you point out to some folks just how corrupt their state or their leaders are they get p1ssed off at you for enlightening them, not their leaders for being liars and thieves….here in Mass our last 3 speakers have all been indicted but I’m the bad guy for writing about it and discussing it…not the speakers who are criminals but the guy talking about it…we have a senator who is a known liar and a plagiarist but since she didn’t drown her date after a drunken party I guess she’s better than who we used to have….
The dems are ceding their rights with nary a complaint to their golden boy…it makes me wish for a republican president if for no other reason than they would be joining us in protest over these actions…instead of supporting them because their guy is promoting the bullsh1t.
Yeah, we’re suspect, but Panetta spills TS stuff to a Hollywood producer at a party:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/watchdog-article-panetta-gave-hollywood-exec-top-secret-info-on-bin-laden-raid/article/2531173
Don’t worry, people. Panetta did it, so he cleared it with himself. It was all part of the plan.
I do agree that this administration seems to get away with too much. It is a huge invasion of privacy, and I don’t have much confidence that it keeps us any safer.
Ive been on terrorist watch list since 2001 because I know how to fly a plane, and learned how to scuba dive when I was in college. This is nothing new to me.
Shoot, betcha dollars to donuts that NSA is collecting all this data not for national security use but to feed info to Valerie Jarrett/OFA to use against its domestic “Enemy’s List”. With the Obamao IRS/DOJ/DOS/EPA/HHS scandals now out in the open, paranoia is no longer so paranoid, and who is to argue otherwise?…
In that ‘2 people are spying on you’ ad, does that include the NSA and the CIA, or NSA and FBI, or is it NSA and that creep that follows old ladies at the grocery store?
Fen’s Law: The Left doesn’t really believe in the things they lecture the rest of us about.
Scuba diving?! Well thank God I don’t know how to fly a plane! This is some really scary stuff, I don’t like where we’re headed.
And yet Obama will be written about from here until the end of time in glowing terms. As he is our first minority President it would be terribly inconvenient for him to be anything else and our or so correct elites can’t be inconvenienced.
Fen: of course not. Neither did the Soviets.
Both were/are just using it as bait to attract a new crop of “useful idiots”.
Oh, and if you take a cell phone/smartphone/netbook/laptop with you when you leave the country – it could get even better:
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2013/06/05/dept-of-homeland-security-laptops-phones-can-be-searched-based-on-hunches/
So much for the 4th Amendment, apparently.
Another day another scandal, next we will have to give our DNA to buy groceries and if your on the wrong side of The Leader you will starve to death. Hmm, this was the land of the free when I moved here 20 years ago, it’s amazing what has happened.
Of course we are all terrorists…just ask the TSA.
For our sake, I truly hope you’re wrong, 68W
@9 the government thought the next wave of terrorist might learn to scuba dive so they could slip into ports and blow stuff up. This was after 9/11 when they started cracking down on people wanting to learn to fly planes but not learn to land them. Since I had a license to fly a plane and a certification to scuba dive I guess I was a double threat.
Russia ain’t got nuthin on us anymore, as far as being monitored goes. We’re probably the most monitored people in the world.
#17 PN,
I thought that “teh most surveilled” was the serfs of London.
usedtabe they beat Executive Order 12333 into your head and that NSA never, EVER monitored US conversations – even overseas calls had to be vetted in case an American was on one end. Then they changed that 2005 or so to allow Bush’s folks to monitor terrorists, and there was an uproar. I guess the current folks (who swore to get rid of this in 2009) have found it easier just to decide EVERYONE is a terrorist now – no need to change the law, just change the definition of a terrorist under the law.
Someone once said something similar to “If Satan did take over Heaven, he would find it necessary to adopt the attributes of God” . We’re there.
@4: The facade of privacy has gone the way of the Do-Do bird. You have none. It’s been justified in one way or another for many years and now they aren’t even trying to hide the fact that the Constitution doesn’t really matter, anymore.
I would expect NSA and CIA to be able to access phone records to hunt terrorists. That doesn’t bother me so much — and they’d die of boredom, looking at my phone records, anyway. It’s the idea that EVERYBODY ELSE in this administration will find a reason to access that info also that makes me very unhappy.
@20 You are right. Could I care less if they know my wife called me to remind me to take out the trash? No. Do I care if they know I call a Christian friend in Israel? Absolutely! Not their business. Monitor known and suspected terrorists all day long, that is their job but average citizens, we are truly going the way Of the KGB and the Gestapo. Yea it should amaze me that the POTUS sailed this through with little fanfare but it doesn’t amaze me because the liberturds behind him in office and the media are with him all the way. Except…if you intercept the calls of media outlets. They are a cut above us right.
@21 Good point. Would the IRS be interested in whom I call? I mean the NSA and CIA is their starting point. What if I call Tea Party headquarters?
And yet they still missed the Boston Marathon bomb plot.
Hey, boys and girls! Looky here!
This here’s the actual genuine TOP SECRET order that justifies the NSA’s abuse of our good nature. And you don’t need your secret squirrle secret decoder ring to read it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2013/jun/06/verizon-telephone-data-court-order
Not so very SECRET now, is it?
Gee, I sure hope they’re reading this so that they know that I know that they know that I know that they know that I truly wish the same thing on them, especially the nastier bastards in the bunch.
Well, DHS just stated that they can look at phones and computers based on a hunch (thank you NDAA) and there’s nothing you or I can do about it. Of course, this administration wouldn’t abuse these systems to go after their “enemies” or anything; right?
I’m not surprised in the least, and despite the feelings of many above, I take some solace in the fact that a good number of people over at the liberal blogs are equally incensed. Granted, they’re saying it’s just a continuation of Bush-era policies, but at least they’re (for the most part) not excusing it.
Spying on suspected terrorists? No problem. Casting even a slightly wider net than necessary? I can probably understand. Getting anything and everything? That’s just wrong. And the strangest thing of all? Verizon’s stock has gone up today, not down, at least as of the moment. This sort of thing typically scares investors, no?
Jonn said to slow down, we’re posting to fast, so I’ll pass for now and cath you all later.
Sam
Granted, they’re saying it’s just a continuation of Bush-era policies
Pray tell, when did the Bush administration ever demand a list of EVERY PHONE CALL made by EVERY VERIZON CUSTOMER over a three-month period?
Oh, right–never.
@17. What do you have from Air Cav? Hold on. Here you go. Exactly 746 incoming calls. Really? Got content? Yes, they are all the same:
AC: “Hello.”
Caller: “Hi, this is the Acme Collection Bureau. Please hold for an associate.”
AC: Click!
(Call terminated. Duration: 15 seconds.)
Big Sis declared that all veterans were on a Terrorist Watch List some years ago.
The Dem-Cong better be careful what they wish for.
According to the National Review and Yahoo News, Bush-43 is completely responsible for all of this.
So not only is Obama incompetent, he’s Bush’s Bitch.
Bitches suck.
It isn’t invasion of privacy if liberals do it, apparently.