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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWant proof that NSA snooping thwarts terror plots? Stand by, Senator Feinstein says
Americans will soon be able to judge for themselves the merits of National Security Agency programs to vacuum up massive amounts of digital data, because intelligence officials hope to declassify terrorist attacks thwarted by the controversial data-mining systems as early as Monday, the Senates top lawmaker on intelligence issues said Thursday.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) of California, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, told reporters that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper is working to declassify some examples of terrorist plots in the US and abroad that were thwarted by sweeping NSA phone-call and social-media data-collection systems. Mr. Clapper has previously said such surveillance efforts helped to block "dozens" of potential attacks.
http://news.yahoo.com/want-proof-nsa-snooping-thwarts-terror-plots-stand-231744658.html
Not sure this will do anything because people will just say they are all lies.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Moral. Perhaps not.
But that's in the eye of the beholder.
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)They approved it.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)And this data mining is Unconstitutional despite how the court ruled.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)From the verbiage in the 1st amendment, you should be able to shout fire in a crowded theater.
You can't. You could claim "The sky is blue even if the court says its red", and the police and prosecutor and judge will complement you on your metaphor as they are sending you off to jail.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... you wouldn't be so damn quick to sell out OUR rights. (Which btw, spinnerguy, aren't yours to sell) Feel free to roll over and give it up for your masters, if you like, some of us are made of better stuff.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Thank you, yes I am right.
Cha
(297,323 posts)woo me with science
(32,139 posts)When someone uses an accurate word to describe what you are doing or advocating, just put the word in quotation marks, add some exclamation points, and try to neutralize it by pretending it's an epithet instead of an accurate descriptor.
Yes, "authoritarian" means something. So does "corporate." So does "hypocrisy." And, believe it or not, so does "Third Way." All of these words have accepted meanings, and the lame defensive tactic you just tried to employ here is shamelessly overused when they are accurately applied to the behavior of corporate Democrats. Defense of a government's spying on its own citizens is pretty damned well authoritarian.
I always picture an indignant poodle rearing up in outrage and exclaiming, "What?! You called me a "DOG"??????"
snooper2
(30,151 posts)Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)that forbade interracial couples from marrying at one time. Federal judges and courts really aren't the keepers of what is constitutional or moral.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)moral, no
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)What is considered constitutional changes.
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)Fuck this authoritarian bullshit.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)exemption to the 1st amendment is "authoritarian".
Come back when you understand why that is an exception to the 1st amendment. When you understand that, you are on your way to understanding why these issues are an exception to the 4th amendment.
treestar
(82,383 posts)That's life. This is not heaven, it's earth. People screw up.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)It took a long time to reverse themselves and it was ONLY public pressure that caused them to do so. They are wrong once again and it is public pressure that will cause the change to come.
treestar
(82,383 posts)and they might reverse themselves yet again further down the line. That is life. We live in a part of history. Lucky we didn't live earlier when the law was less developed and many people who now have the right to vote did not, even though they should have. That's life. People screw up and improve it, screw it up and make it worse before they make it better, etc. But there is no better way on earth - the Supreme Court is a better decider of the constitutionality of a law than any individual, who would have to be a dictator and wouldn't have to respect the law anyway.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)The Obama administration has been fighting tooth and nail to prevent anyone from seeing the ruling, or knowing how it is being "complied" with.
This is the problem. Secret rulings on secret activities, complete with secret crimes and secret rehabilitation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/justice-department-prism_n_3405101.html
A 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling found the U.S. government had unconstitutionally overreached in its use of a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The National Security Agency uses the same section to justify its PRISM online data collection program. But that court opinion must remain secret, the Justice Department says, to avoid being "misleading to the public."
The DOJ was responding to a lawsuit filed last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation seeking the release of a 2011 court opinion that found the government had violated the Constitution and circumvented FISA, the law that is supposed to protect Americans from surveillance aimed at foreigners.
(snip)
The part of the FISA law addressed in the opinion in question, Section 702, is the same one the NSA is now using to scoop up email and social media records through its PRISM program.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)repeatedly refuses to hear these cases indicating they see no problem there.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)repeatedly in the past.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)There is a valid Constitutional reason to why the appeals courts are ruling this way.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)they are ruling this way because they are part of the power structure. It's always about power and money and this is no exception.
It's a bunch of authoritarian bullshit based on scare mongering in order to give the powers that be more power that they so desperately crave.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)What's clear is you haven't even begun to do any homework on this at all.
For you to have a valid argument, you would have to read a few of the appeals court cases you seem to be trying to disagree with and understand why they ruled that way and refute their arguments.
You haven't done that. I'll bet you haven't read a single one. You are just throwing baseless arguments out there that sound good to you for whatever reason but have no basis in fact whatsoever.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)You have no idea what I know and your opinion is of little importance to me.
The courts will eventually reverse themselves when society demands it. The rest is window dressing.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Please feel free to continue your fact-challenged rant.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)Carry on with your delusions.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)That ought to do you real well in life.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)You just think you have the facts on your side, and that's fine. You, along with the courts, will eventually change course if and when society demands it. The judges and the courts are not the final arbiters of what's constitutional or not, the American people are, and while often slow the American people have, time and time again demanded a new way of seeing an issue. When the abuses become so egregious, they will change course just as they did on interracial marriage and other issues. And if the American people don't stand up and force the change the constitution will eventually, once and for all, be nothing but toilet paper for the court's "exceptions".
think
(11,641 posts)Guess it doesn't fit the talking points...
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)We still don't have all the facts on that.
Aerows
(39,961 posts)to prevent us from having all of the facts. What does that tell you? I know what it tells me.
think
(11,641 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 14, 2013, 11:59 AM - Edit history (1)
by saying they were just denied a warrant.
Classic.
By Sreeja VN | June 13 2013 1:32 AM
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISC, ruled Wednesday that it has no objection to the release of a 2011 opinion of the court, which found that some of the National Security Agencys surveillance programs under the FISA Amendments Act, were unconstitutional...
Full article:
http://www.ibtimes.com/fisc-will-not-object-release-2011-court-opinion-confirmed-nsas-illegal-surveillance-1305023#
Not sure why you choose to keep ignoring these facts to support your meme..
DCBob
(24,689 posts)because its not clear any laws were broken due to national security and FISA, etc.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)are just fine, and the appeals courts repeatedly indicate that FISA is not unconstitutional. Before FISA they ruled that warrantless wiretapping in cases of foreign espionage and terror were legal.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)indepat
(20,899 posts)or not rule on imo. This conservative-majority Supreme court renders its opinion based almost solely on ideology and not constitutionality: the proof is found in its ever-present odious body of work.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)There is a valid Constitutional reason that FISA keeps getting upheld.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)And it hasn't even come before a Federal court.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)before FISA, warrantless wiretapping was upheld in situations of foreign espionage and terror.
pnwmom
(108,980 posts)by any Federal court. Or any court that I've heard of.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/justice-department-prism_n_3405101.html
A 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling found the U.S. government had unconstitutionally overreached in its use of a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The National Security Agency uses the same section to justify its PRISM online data collection program. But that court opinion must remain secret, the Justice Department says, to avoid being "misleading to the public."
The DOJ was responding to a lawsuit filed last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation seeking the release of a 2011 court opinion that found the government had violated the Constitution and circumvented FISA, the law that is supposed to protect Americans from surveillance aimed at foreigners.
(snip)
The part of the FISA law addressed in the opinion in question, Section 702, is the same one the NSA is now using to scoop up email and social media records through its PRISM program.
This is a specious argument based on the false assertion that all of this was settled when FISA was set up. That's not the case. We're now dealing with new activities under the Patriot Act and unknown "interpretations" of the various laws.
Besides the fact the PRISM law was being interpreted and used unconstitutionally through 2011, we don't know where the programs have gone from there, or what the administration is and is not telling the court, or how it's interpreting, for example, how it can use data that it "legally" collects.
No one can know for certain what's being done that is or isn't legal, or constitutional, or morally supportable, because it's all in secret.
This is the problem.
think
(11,641 posts)Either they are completely clueless like deer in head lights or they are conveniently ignoring these facts because they don't fit their narrative and world view.
It is truly pathetic....
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Not every request for a warrant is granted even in regular criminal law.
What you have cited here proves nothing except that the FISA courts are operating as they should be, as a check to the executive branch.
think
(11,641 posts)in regards to the FISA court ruling on unlawful activity by the NSA.
So either you are just making stuff up or you are privy to specific information on the court ruling that isn't in the public domain.
Can you at least show us your factual basis for claiming this FISA ruling is in regards to denying a warrant to the NSA? Or tell us you are privy to classified material but aren't allowed to share with the lesser beings here who are too inferior to be trusted with the findings of the court in regards to this manor?
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Which is the problem. Good luck arguing to anyone that if the entire Executive branch of our government does not have to ever tell us how it was unconstitutionally invading our privacy, or how it believes it has stopped doing that.
Take Obama partisanship out of the equation first, and try making that argument for a Republican executive.
Seriously, try this:
"If the Rubio (he's just my current favorite nightmare) administration says we don't need to know about the secret ruling about how it was using an illegal interpretation of the PRISM law to violate the Constitution, and doesn't need to disclose how it has stopped violating our Constitutional rights for "security reasons," then _________."
"Everything's fine?"
Really?
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)Plessy v. Ferguson was not the final word on civil rights.
It is unconstitutional and once again the courts are on the wrong side of the issue. They have been on many occasions in the past, will be again in the future, and are in the present. Only societal pressure will cause them to change.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)said about the Loving vs. Virginia case. They were wrong and so are you.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)You don't even understand why the appeals courts consider these cases an exception to the fourth amendment.
ohheckyeah
(9,314 posts)I don't give a shit why they consider the cases an exception to the fourth amendment or whether or not you think I have a basis for my assertions. The reason why is POWER - their explanation why is bullshit.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)I daresay a law that passes the power to decide on searches to secret authorities without warrants or oversight turns "rule of law" into a variation on divine right.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)group engaging in foreign espionage or terror, different rules apply.
Simple. Before FISA, warrantless wiretapping was allowed in these cases. With the passage of FISA, warrantless wiretapping in these cases became illegal and the federal government was required to get a FISA warrant.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)The question is not whether we have FISA courts, or whether you can have FISA court's, for Pete's sake. It's whether the surveillance is actually being conducted legally and constitutionally.
We know the PRISM law was being interpreted unconstitutionally as late as 2011. We know that the administration will not release the ruling, and will not explain how it's complying with it.
FISA doesn't sit in the NSA offices and watch exactly what they do. Courts issue rulings on what information can be gathered under what circumstances. We don't know what legal interpretations are being applied, or what the courts are being told.
For example, all the surveillance we're talking about is supposed to FOREIGN. As in FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT.
http://www.vice.com/read/the-fbi-wants-to-wiretap-every-us-citizen-online
So, the NSA apparently thinks "foreign" means "51%" of what's being gathered is *supposed* to be foreign. Has a court ruled on the interpretation that "foreign" means just 51% foreign? That sounds like a rather radical interpretation of the term.
And, even IF the NSA *says* it's aiming for 51% foreign, how does it make that calculation? With no one checking, we'll never know.
No one's tragically confused about what's going on here. It's not the concept of FISA courts that is at issue.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)The ultimate target of the investigation has to be a foreign sponsored or assisted espionage or terrorist group. That is what all of the caselaw on this says, and I have highlighted the relevant portions of US v Duggan below, to include a portion that spells out that the target may not be known.
Note also the last thing I bolded "Prior to the enactment of FISA, virtually every court that had addressed the issue had concluded that the President had the inherent power to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance to collect foreign intelligence information, and that such surveillances constituted an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment."
http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/cases/nat-sec/duggan.htm
II. FISA
[50] Enacted in 1978, FISA generally allows a federal officer, if authorized by the President of the United States acting through the Attorney General (or the Acting Attorney General or the Deputy Attorney General) of the United States, to obtain from a judge of the specially created FISA Court, see 50 U.S.C. ? 1803, an order "approving electronic surveillance of a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence information." Id. ? 1802(b).
[51] FISA contains several definitions of "foreign power" and "agent of a foreign power." Most pertinently to this case, FISA defines "foreign power" to include "a group engaged in international terrorism or activities in preparation therefor." Id. ? 1801(a)(4). An "agent of a foreign power" is defined to include both "any person other than a United States person, who . . . acts in the United States as . . . a member of a foreign power as defined in [? 1801(a)(4)]," id. ? 1801(b)(1)(A), and "any person who . . . knowingly engages in . . . international terrorism, or activities that are in preparation therefor, for or on behalf of a foreign power," id. ? 1801(b)(2)(C). Section 1801(i) defines "United States person" to include
[52] a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted for permanent residence (as defined in section 1101 (a)(20) of title 8), [and] an unincorporated association a substantial number of members of which are citizens of the United States or aliens lawfully admitted for permanent residence.
[53] The Act defines "foreign intelligence information," in part, as
[54] (1) information that relates to, and if concerning a United States person is necessary to, the ability of the United States to protect against --
[55] (B) sabotage or international terrorism by a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power; or
[56] (2) information with respect to a foreign power or foreign territory that relates to, and if concerning a United States person is necessary to --
[57] (A) the national defense or security of the United States; or
[58] (B) the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States.
[59] Id. ? 1801(e). "International terrorism" is defined to include activities that -- (1) involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that . . . would be a criminal violation if committed within the jurisdiction of the United States or any State;
[60] (2) appear to be intended --
[61] (A) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
[62] (B) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
[63] (C) to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping; and
[64] (3) occur totally outside the United States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to coerce or intimidate, or the locale in which their perpetrators operate or seek asylum.
[65] Id. ? 1801(c).
[66] A federal officer making application for a FISA order approving electronic surveillance must include in his application, inter alia, "the identity, if known, or a description of the target of the electronic surveillance," id. ? 1804(a)(3); "a statement of the facts and circumstances relied upon by the applicant to justify his belief that . . . the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power," id. ? 1804(a)(4); and a certification by the Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, or an executive branch designee of the President that, inter alia, the certifying official deems the information sought to be foreign intelligence information and that the purpose of the surveillance is to obtain foreign intelligence information, together with a statement of the basis for the certification that the information sought is the type of foreign intelligence information designated. Id. ? 1804(a)(7). When the target is a United States person, the government is required to minimize the acquisition and retention of nonpublic available information and to prohibit its dissemination, consistent with the need of the United States to obtain, produce, and disseminate foreign intelligence information, id. ? 1801(h); and the application must set out what minimization procedures are proposed, id. ? 1804(a)(5).
[67] The FISA Judge is authorized to enter an order approving electronic surveillance if he finds, inter alia, that
[68] on the basis of the facts submitted by the applicant there is probable cause to believe that --
[69] (A) the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power: Provided, That no United States person may be considered a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power solely upon the basis of activities protected by the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
[70] id. ? 1805(a)(3), and finds that the applying official has obtained the requisite authorization and has submitted the required information, id. ?? 1805(a)(1), (2) and (5). If the target is a United States person, the FISA Judge is not to approve surveillance unless he finds that the certifications submitted pursuant to ? 1804(a)(7)(E) are not clearly erroneous on the basis of the data before him. Id. ? 1805(a)(5).
[71] Defendants mount two types of challenge with regard to FISA. First, they contend that the Act is unconstitutional on several grounds. In addition, they contend that even if FISA is not unconstitutional, its requirements were not met in this case.
[72] A. The Constitutionality of FISA
[73] Defendants contend that FISA is unconstitutional principally on the grounds that (1) it is so broad as to deprive certain persons of due process of law, (2) it violates the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment, and (3) it deprives nonresident aliens of the equal protection of the law. We find no merit in these contentions.*fn4
[74] 1. The Scope of the Act
[75] Defendants argue that FISA is impermissibly broad in several respects. They point out that foreign intelligence information includes "information with respect to a foreign power . . . that relates to . . . (A) the national defense or the security of the United States; or (B) the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States." 50 U.S.C. ? 1801(e)(2). They also point to the definition of an agent of a foreign power as a person, other than a United States person, who
[76] acts for or on behalf of a foreign power which engages in clandestine intelligence activities in the United States contrary to the interests of the United States, when the circumstances of such person's presence in the United States indicate that such person may engage in such activities in the United States,
[77] id. ? 1801(b)(1)(B) (emphasis added), and to the definition of an agent of a foreign power as any person who
[78] knowingly engages in clandestine intelligence gathering activities for or on behalf of a foreign power, which activities involve or may involve a violation of the criminal statutes of the United States,
[79] id. ? 1801(b)(2)(A) (emphasis added). Defendants argue that the breadth of the above definitions gives the Act unlimited scope and permits the electronic surveillance of persons who "may" be engaging in activities that "may" violate United States law.
[80] Interesting though these arguments may be in the abstract, they have no application to the case at hand. The information relayed by Hanratty to the FBI clearly portrayed Megahey as a member of a "group engaged in international terrorism or activities in preparation therefor," id. ? 1801(a)(4); Megahey was therefore an agent of a foreign power under ? 1801(b)(1)(A). There is no suggestion in the record that Megahey was targeted because he was or may have been gathering intelligence. The sections of the Act relied upon by the defendants to show that the Act is impermissibly broad are simply irrelevant to this case. The sections and definitions plainly applicable to Megahey are explicit, unequivocal, and clearly defined.
[81] Nor are we impressed by defendants' argument that insofar as ? 1801(e)(2) defines foreign intelligence information as information that "relates to . . . (A) the national defense or the security of the United States; or (B) the conduct of the foreign affairs of the United States" it is impermissibly vague. Section 1801(e)(1)(B) defines foreign intelligence information as "information that relates to . . . the ability of the United States to protect against . . . international terrorism by a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power." Given the information provided by Hanratty, the government plainly had a basis under this section for describing the information sought by surveillance of Megahey, self-proclaimed leader of an international terrorist group, as foreign intelligence information. Thus, even if we thought ? 1801(e)(2)'s concepts of national defense, national security, or conduct of foreign affairs to be vague, which we do not, we would find therein no basis for reversing the convictions of these defendants, whose circumstances were governed by an entirely different definition.
[82] 2. The Probable Cause Requirement of the Fourth Amendment
[83] The Fourth Amendment provides that "no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause. . . ." Defendants argue principally (1) that the Amendment applies to all proposed surveillances, including those in national security cases, and (2) that even if there were an exception for national security matters, it would not apply to terrorism cases where the objects of the terrorism are entirely outside of the United States. We reject these contentions.
[84] Prior to the enactment of FISA, virtually every court that had addressed the issue had concluded that the President had the inherent power to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance to collect foreign intelligence information, and that such surveillances constituted an exception to the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment. See United States v. Truong Dinh Hung, 629 F.2d 908, 912-14 (4th Cir. 1980), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1144, 71 L. Ed. 2d 296, 102 S. Ct. 1004 (1982); United States v. Buck, 548 F.2d 871, 875 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 890, 54 L. Ed. 2d 175, 98 S. Ct. 263 (1977); United States v. Butenko, 494 F.2d 593, 605 (3d Cir.) (en banc), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 881, 42 L. Ed. 2d 121, 95 S. Ct. 147 (1974); United States v. Brown, 484 F.2d 418, 426 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 960, 39 L. Ed. 2d 575, 94 S. Ct. 1490 (1974); but see Zweibon v. Mitchell, 170 U.S. App. D.C. 1, 516 F.2d 594, 633-651 (D.C. Cir. 1975), (dictum), cert. denied, 425 U.S. 944, 48 L. Ed. 2d 187, 96 S. Ct. 1685 (1976). The Supreme Court specifically declined to address this issue in United States v. United States District Court [Keith, J.], 407 U.S. 297, 308, 321-22, 32 L. Ed. 2d 752, 92 S. Ct. 2125 (1972) (hereinafter referred to as " Keith " , but it had made clear that the requirements of the Fourth Amendment may change when differing governmental interests are at stake, see Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 87 S. Ct. 1727, 18 L. Ed. 2d 930 (1967), and it observed in Keith that the governmental interests presented in national security investigations differ substantially from those presented in traditional criminal investigations. 407 U.S. at 321-324.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Which, again, is not the issue. We don't know how the law is being interpreted. Well, we know the NSA thinks that, by its own reckoning if it theoretically aims for "51%" of the information it gathers to be "foreign," it's doing the right thing.
We don't know how it "tries" for "51%." We don't know how successful it is in doing that. We don't know that "51%" is a reasonable interpretation in the first place. We don't know how the NSA failed to do that in 2011, or what it's doing different now.
We don't know how that court itself found the administration was behaving unconstitutionally as to the PRISM law as late as 2011.
You have grasped on to a tiny, irrelevant component and declared it to be the entire issue.
You write out the entire Fourth Amendment as though its existence automatically means it's being complied with.
Laws don't work that way. They are not self-executing or self-interpreting, or self-enforcing. That's why we have multiple checks and balances.
What you are leaping over entirely is the fact that we already know that even with the 4th Amendment, even with FISA courts, the law can be broken, privacy rights trampled. It's already happened.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/justice-department-prism_n_3405101.html
A 2011 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruling found the U.S. government had unconstitutionally overreached in its use of a section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The National Security Agency uses the same section to justify its PRISM online data collection program. But that court opinion must remain secret, the Justice Department says, to avoid being "misleading to the public."
The DOJ was responding to a lawsuit filed last year by the Electronic Frontier Foundation seeking the release of a 2011 court opinion that found the government had violated the Constitution and circumvented FISA, the law that is supposed to protect Americans from surveillance aimed at foreigners.
(snip)
The part of the FISA law addressed in the opinion in question, Section 702, is the same one the NSA is now using to scoop up email and social media records through its PRISM program.
Your entire argument boils down to the theory that if we have laws and courts everything is fine. By that reckoning, no Constitutional rights have ever been violated. No Executive has ever abused surveillance powers. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
No one thinks that.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)ignoring why Senator Kennedy submitted FISA in 1977 and why President Carter signed it in 1978.
You have no idea about the why's of any of those things, nor do most folks who agree with you, you just go around shouting "BAD" "BAD" "FOURTH AMENDMENT!!!!111!1!" and think that constitutes an argument and reasoned position.
It doesn't in case you need me to point that out.
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Again, you are overestimating the significance of "case law" that merely outlines the existence of FISA. There is no case law that magically guarantees whatever the NSA or any administration does will be legal.
Under your rationale, it is somehow impossible for the government to surveil citizens illegally, and that must never have happened.
And yet we know, for a fact, that the NSA and the past two administrations have unconstitutionally spied on Americans. You may want to check a calendar, but this probably occurred sometime after "1977."
Despite "case law," the Bush administration interpreted FISA and the Patriot Act to mean it could wiretap Americans without warrants. The NSA's response to Bush's interpretation of the law was to go along with it, 100%, in total secrecy, and then a few steps further, listening in and trading around amusing "sex talk."
This went on until a whistleblower stopped it, a fact you seem to have forgotten, or are choosing to ignore.
When the whistleblower revealed this, the Bush administration's response was to call him "shameful," and look into prosecuting him.
Sound familiar?
As late as 2011, the present administration was also unconstitutionally breaking the law. Despite FISA, despite case law.
If the mere existence of FISA magically means no abuses can take place after "1977," how did those things occur? What's stopping them from occurring now, given the present administration has declared no one can even see the legal interpretations it is relying upon?
While we're at it, how was this administration violating the Constitution in 2011, and what is it doing now that improves on that?
You don't know, because they won't tell you. What's odd is why you think something from "1977" guarantees everything is fine.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)Last edited Fri Jun 14, 2013, 05:37 AM - Edit history (1)
"the truth lies somewhere in the middle"
"We need a robust discussion"
"you're entitled to your opinion"
"we need to have a debate"
msongs
(67,420 posts)cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)But before they're revealed, if you listen real hard, you'll hear someone say "Soup's on!"
grasswire
(50,130 posts)Have you never heard of the boy who cried wolf?
markiv
(1,489 posts)do what you have to do, i wont question it
please, protect me i am afraid
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)reformist2
(9,841 posts)Eddie Haskell
(1,628 posts)Question is, why did the FBI only sponsor attacks by Muslim dissidents? Wouldn't this qualify as pre-profiling? Why not sponsor attacks by white supremacist or militant Christians? This seems to be an example of getting the results you want by selecting the group you want to Demonize. It's worse than profiling.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Oh, goody.
Raine
(30,540 posts)VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)Raine
(30,540 posts)Vinnie From Indy
(10,820 posts)I wouldn't believe anything that woman says.
cali
(114,904 posts)a crime.
fuck difi.
BenzoDia
(1,010 posts)bowens43
(16,064 posts)BenzoDia
(1,010 posts)Whether it's professional, personal, political or whatever.
How can one make an informed opinion about anything if they don't listen? That's just ignorant.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Even as much as they will all claim any such information provided is bogus, they do not want any facts provided to upset their narrative.
I really feel sorry for them in a way. To fear the facts like that and have an ideology that depends on suppression of those facts cant be a nice place to be.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Yeah, what freaks these people must be, huh?
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)BenzoDia
(1,010 posts)sibelian
(7,804 posts)If someone tells me they're about to reveal why it was OK to assassinate JFK, well I won't be worried about hanging around.
BenzoDia
(1,010 posts)And it's something we deserve an explanation on.
cpwm17
(3,829 posts)All to save us from enemies she has helped create by our government's evil foreign policy and aggressive war mongering.
Supporting a moral foreign policy would actually make us and the world much safer. War is very profitable to her so she'll never do that.
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)And no, I'm not going to be inclined to believe anything coming from NSA, or from Feinstein.
bowens43
(16,064 posts)that's completely irrelevant.
You really seem to love this program that violates the rights of EVERY AMERICAN!!!!
DirkGently
(12,151 posts)Even if doing horrendous, unconstitutional things worked, which they have never been proven to do, that option isn't on the table.
Bit telling as well that we're being told what we'll be told, rather than actually being told.
And no, such stories typically can't be believed, because the information is so scarce, and can be so carefully edited and selected.
Melinda
(5,465 posts)Udall and Wyden questioned assertions last week that the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records "has actually provided any uniquely valuable intelligence" beyond what is available through other, less intrusive surveillance programs: "As far as we can see, all of the useful information that it has provided appears to have also been available through other collection methods that do not violate the privacy of law-abiding Americans in the way that the Patriot Act collection does. We hope that President Obama will probe the basis for these assertions, as we have."
senate.gov
Both Senators serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee along with DiFi. Someone is not being truthful OR its a lot of premature speculation. Either way, it's ambiguous at best, lies at worse. We deserve the truth, not political posturing.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)I thought everyone knew this already.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Link?
hay rick
(7,624 posts)Thanks for the link.
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)and then caught the perpetrators. Except it did neither.
Just like only good guys with guns can stop bad guys with guns. Which explains why Hinckley was prevented from shooting Hinckley by his armed Secret Service agents because he was the most protected target in the world. Except that didn't work either.
GreenStormCloud
(12,072 posts)You won't find it. Because something may be 99% efficient instead of your desired 100% is no reason to abandon it. There are cases where seat belts and air bags kill instead of save lives. Do you want to rip them out of cars?
There are cases of people in their 90s who smoke. Do consider all the anti-smoking efforts to be wrong?
There have been numerous attacks on presidents that have come close to success. Sarah Jane Moore's attack on Ford was stopped by an ordinary citizen, not by his bodyguards. Lincoln, JFK, & Garfield all has Secret Service escorts. Therefore, according to you, all security for a president should be removed as being worthless.
Ms. Toad
(34,076 posts)Whatever means we use should be consistent with our values, and the government collection of massive quantities of data on every one of us is not consistent with any value I hold dear.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)dkf
(37,305 posts)Senators Mark Udall and Ron Wyden, who serve on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, called on Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, to clarify his statements that the surveillance programs disclosed through leaks over the past week have helped avert "dozens of terrorist attacks" in recent years.
Alexander testified yesterday that the collection of millions of Americans' phone records was "critical in corroborating" information gleaned through the PRISM program, without providing further information.
"We have not yet seen any evidence showing that the NSA's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records has produced any uniquely valuable intelligence. Gen. Alexander's testimony yesterday suggested that the NSAs bulk phone records collection program helped thwart 'dozens' of terrorist attacks, but all of the plots that he mentioned appear to have been identified using other collection methods. The public deserves a clear explanation," Udall and Wyden said. "We look forward to reviewing the analysis that the general has promised to provide showing how the intelligence community arrived at these numbers. In our view, a key measure of the effectiveness of the bulk collection program will be whether it provided any intelligence that couldnt be obtained through other methods."
Udall and Wyden questioned assertions last week that the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records "has actually provided any uniquely valuable intelligence" beyond what is available through other, less intrusive surveillance programs: "As far as we can see, all of the useful information that it has provided appears to have also been available through other collection methods that do not violate the privacy of law-abiding Americans in the way that the Patriot Act collection does. We hope that President Obama will probe the basis for these assertions, as we have."
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023009243
Doc_Technical
(3,526 posts)who plotted to blow up government buildings
using remote control airplanes.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57543946/mass-man-sentenced-in-model-airplane-terror-plot/
Government agents have aided mentally defective people to
carry out ridiculous plots and supplied these mental midgets
with phony explosives, etc.
I don't believe anyone like Dianne Feinstein to give us any
accurate information.
mick063
(2,424 posts)They decide to declassify only when the political shit hits the fan.
Expect them to rain down the "success" stories regardless of the fact that they have been caught "telling the least untruth" already. I don't believe these "success" stories. When caught in a lie, credibility goes down the drain, even if it is in the best interest of "national security".
This is really all about robbing taxpayers to pay surveillance "contractors" exorbitant fees. This is what always happens when influence peddlers sell their wares on K street.......made up "success stories".
We must collectively tell them that we feel less secure with this expensive trampling of our constitutional rights.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)420superstoned420
(2 posts)Not only is this good for fighting terrorism, but it also could eventually be used as a way to get a back door gun registry on the tea partiers.
It's only a problem if a tyrant Republican is in office. If a Democrat wins the next presidential election we won't need to worry. If somehow, a Republican wins, Obama could just close it with an executive order.
GeorgeGist
(25,321 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)JHB
(37,161 posts)If you think canceling elections is a valid tactic, you're in the wrong place.
Response to JHB (Reply #111)
Name removed Message auto-removed
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Some of us know you, in your only 2 posts here, are here specifically to create a grotesque image of Democrats.
It ain't gonna work. Democrats don't think this way. Republicans do.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)completely unrecognizable. I will no longer refer to myself as a democrat.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Please reconsider. There are a number of things the Democratic Party has done to benefit Americans.
sibelian
(7,804 posts)No more games.
Harmony Blue
(3,978 posts)What has our party become?
Spider Jerusalem
(21,786 posts)hobbit709
(41,694 posts)JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)proof is forth coming ... they don't want to see it ... and they state categorically that won't believe it no matter what it is anyway.
Big surprise there.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)on American citizens. More hooey packets coming down the pike....
Clapper has no cred. Talk about a mouthpiece.