Editorial: Bipartisan Blessings; NSA Program Arouses Little Anger
Bipartisanship is far from dead on Capitol Hill, all appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. As it turns out, one major program has apparently been enthusiastically supported by Democratic and Republican leaders alike in Congress over the past few years: secret mass surveillance of the American people. We guess there’s nothing like contravening the Fourth Amendment to bring people together.
This is but one of many ironies pointed up by last week’s unauthorized disclosure of information about activities being conducted by the National Security Agency, one of which involves collecting information about all telephone calls placed or received in the United States. The other focuses on collecting Internet data from companies like Google and Facebook about the activities of foreign users.
Apparently, congressional leaders have repeatedly given their secret blessing to these programs, begun under President George W. Bush, continued by the Obama administration and approved by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Since the programs were disclosed by Edward J. Snowden, a 29-year-old former CIA employee and more recently a contractor working at the NSA (an organization so secret that its initials are only half-jokingly referred to as standing for No Such Agency), members of the congressional leadership have given them a hearty endorsement in public.
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http://www.vnews.com/opinion/6957220-95/editorial-bipartisan-blessings-nsa-program-arouses-little-anger
Good editorial out of Vermont's Upper Valley.
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