LETTER From Obama "Specifically To Inform Congress" of NSA Spying-WITHHELD By House Intell Committee

[kpete]

A letter drafted by the Obama administration specifically to inform Congress of the government’s mass collection of Americans’ telephone communications data was withheld from lawmakers by leaders of the House Intelligence Committee in the months before a key vote affecting the future of the program.

The February 2011 document was declassified last month and has been cited repeatedly by administration officials and legislative leaders as evidence that the surveillance program had been properly examined by Congress as part of an aggressive system of checks and balances.


The National Security Agency offered these comments on The Post’s story on privacy violations.

A cover letter to the House and Senate intelligence committees that was sent with the document asked the leaders of each panel to share the written material with all members of Congress.

Ronald Weich, who was an assistant attorney general at the time, wrote that making the material available to Congress would be an “effective way to inform the legislative debate about reauthorization” of the provision of the Patriot Act that served as the legal basis for the phone surveillance. A similar document was available to all members of Congress in 2009, prior to a 2010 reauthorization vote.



.................

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-panel-withheld-document-on-nsa-surveillance-program-from-members/2013/08/16/944e728e-0672-11e3-9259-e2aafe5a5f84_story.html?hpid=z1

[uponit7771]

1. This all seems aimed at Obama by a basher and coordinated with the GOP. The amount of outrage

...of the "suspicion" or the amount of wrong doing by the NSA et al seems misplaced relative to the amount of voter suppression the GOP is doing.

What good is the 4th without the 15th, daily SnowGlen post vs daily post about what the GOP is doing to suppress votes seem sKrange

[NYC_SKP]

2. The US Congress, both parties, has completely fucked the pup on this one.

It is their responsibility.

I'm outraged by my own Senator Feinstein's arrogance and complicity in this.

[uponit7771]

5. That's if one believes all the reports of "pups" being fucked... I don't, they're mostly coming

...from a basher and an idiot....the more falsifiable ones that is....I don't expect perfection out of the agencies and know they're going to screw up but Obama is pushing for more oversight of the screwups etc.

I don't trust the outrage....out of proportion relative to what the GOP is doing to supress votes state by state

regards

[nashville_brook]

18. love this new meme: b/c voter suppression exists, NSA concerns unwarranted

it's a childish proposition: "Because world hunger exists, I don't have to clean my room."

[uponit7771]

36. OVERT Strawman noted, good indicator fudr central hasn't given a response to it...truth is hard

...to deflect

[sabrina 1]

59. Is Ron Wyden one of those 'bashers'? I have a feeling he can handle more than one issue at a time.

And I doubt he's out their warning the American people that we what we already know 'is only the tip of the iceberg' just to 'bash Obama'.

Did it ever occur to you that not everything is about one politician in the minds of millions of Americans? Did it occur to you that people have a GENUINE concern for what is going on in this country? Why do you attribute nefarious motives to people, people now of all walks of life, across the political spectrum and assume that all of them only want to 'bash Obama'?

This meme is getting old. Most Americans have children and grand children. I would think that a vast majority of them are more worried about the future of this country in which their children will have to live, is way, way, way more important than some fantasy motive that they are all out to 'get' one politician or another.

Do you understand that is way beyond that at this point??

[Octafish]

4. Smear the messenger.

Nice. Un-democratic, too.

[uponit7771]

6. Facts don't hurt, facts about SnowGlen don't hurt either I trust them less and I trust their motives

...even less.

Out of proportion outrage about what the agencies "Could" be doing vs what the GOP IS doing with voter suppression.


There's no 4th without the 15th

[Octafish]

9. WikiLeaks opened up the gangster's world.

How often have we been told in world-weary tones that Wikileaks has revealed nothing new - especially by those who want to appear to be in the know? Here is an aide-mémoire of a few of the highest profile revelations.

by Ryan Gallagher
17 February 2011
OpenDemocracy.net

Since 2006, whistleblower website WikiLeaks ↑ has published a mass of information we would otherwise not have known. The leaks have exposed dubious procedures at Guantanamo Bay ↑ and detailed meticulously the Iraq War's unprecedented civilian death-toll ↑ . They have highlighted the dumping of toxic waste in Africa ↑ as well as revealed America's clandestine military actions in Yemen and Pakistan ↑ .

The sheer scope and significance of the revelations is shocking. Among them are great abuses of power, corruption, lies and war crimes. Yet there are still some who insist WikiLeaks has "told us nothing new". This collection, sourced from a range of publications across the web, illustrates nothing could be further from the truth. Here, if there is still a grain of doubt in your mind, is just some of what WikiLeaks has told us:

SNIP...

• The Obama administration worked with Republicans to protect Bush administration officials facing a criminal investigation into torture (see Mother Jones ↑ )

SNIP...

• More than 66,000 civilians suffered “violent deaths” in Iraq between 2004 and the end of 2009 (see the Telegraph ↑ )

SNIP...

• BP suffered a blowout after a gas leak in the Caucasus country of Azerbaijan in September 2008, a year and a half before another BP blowout killed 11 workers (see the Guardian)

CONTINUED with LINKS...

http://www.opendemocracy.net/ryan-gallagher/what-has-wikileaks-ever-taught-us-read-on

Gee. No wonder they want to shut up Assange and the Internet he rode in on.

PS: The picture above is of Jose Padilla in his sensory deprivation goggles.

[ucrdem]

15. Funny you mention Padilla. What exactly did wikileaks "teach" us about Jose Padilla?

Apparently that Bush and Cheney's sadistic criminality was perfectly just and righteous:

WikiLeaks: Padilla Met With KSM

A U.S. military document posted on the internet Monday by WikiLeaks reports that former Chicago gang member Jose Padilla met with the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, in 2002 and was ordered to find a terrorist target in Chicago.

Padilla was told to rent an apartment in Chicago, and Binyam Ahmed Mohammed was ordered to “join Padilla in Chicago on this mission,” according to the document.

Padilla flew to Chicago on May 8, 2002, and was immediately arrested at O’Hare International Airport. At the time, officials said he was suspected of coming to the U.S. to scout targets for a radioactive “dirty bomb” explosion.

http://ap-dp.blogspot.com/2011/04/wikileaks-padilla-met-with-ksm.html

And before Obama took office wiki-boy was busy helping London banksters launch hostile takeovers of socialized financial institutions in Scandinavia and Africa:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaupthing_Bank

Sorry Octafish, but the Assange you're so fond of is a figment of your imagination. The guy's a RW tool and proud of it.

[Octafish]

19. Nice job of obfuscation.

Padilla is a U.S. citizen. No matter what ad-dp blogspot writes, the government has no right to treat him as a sub-human.

Don't believe me? I don't care. Ask Don Siegelman.

[ucrdem]

22. "The government" changed hands following the November 2008 election.

Assange and company would like to make you forget that and apparently they're succeeding.

[Octafish]

26. Really? You imply I said something that I didn't. That's a cheap propaganda technique, ucrdem.

Here's a bit of what I've written on the subject:

Know your BFEE: The Secret Government

Then, there's the Safari Club:

CIA, the NAZIs, and America

Don't forget Dick Cheney never left:

Cheney Stay-Behind Network

Gee. When did you start writing about government secrecy, ucrdem?

[ucrdem]

27. Did you notice that Petraeus took a powder the day after Obama won reelection

last November? Coincidence I'm sure. So much for Cheney's stay-behind government. The other two posts are from 05 and 07, when Bush-Cheney were still running the show. They're fine posts, the best, but Bush and Cheney are gone and their legacy is slowly but surely following them, and thanks be for that.

[Octafish]

30. Laugh all you want. I don't see you adding to what we know.

Lots of volume, though. Great job!

[ucrdem]

25. p.s. it isn't obfuscation to point out that Assange carries water for the Bush league.

Same convenient story via HuffPost, complete with terrorist pic:

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Met With Jose Padilla, Ex-Chicago Gang Leader, In 2002: WikiLeaks
First Posted: 04/26/11



According to a new batch of documents released by WikiLeaks, the mastermind of the September 11 terrorist attacks met with a Chicago gang leader to discuss potential terrorist attacks against targets within the city.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-me_n_853729.html

[Octafish]

32. So that picture explains why Padilla doesn't deserve his Constitutional rights.

Got it. FWIW, that's a very un-democratic position to hold, ucrdem.

[ucrdem]

33. That isn't my position. It's the one Assange is propping up. nt

[questionseverything]

61. post 15 you said concerning

an American citizen.....Apparently that Bush and Cheney's sadistic criminality was perfectly just and righteous:

[AnotherMcIntosh]

29. Rec

[liberal_at_heart]

44. well put.

[Rex]

53. SnowGlen? LOL!

nt.

[Mojorabbit]

63. Are you the arbitrator of or proportion when it comes to rage? One can multitask

and be outraged by both travesties.

[stupidicus]

48. what nonsense

I could have been making the same case over climate change coverage, etc.

the agendas behind such have nothing to do with the facts in the NSA case, which many apologists/denialists are treating as the common rightwingnut flat earther does inconvenient facts they can muster no explanation for/rebuttal to.

what the corporate media prioritizes in their coverage is separate and distinct issue. Maybe you should give the readers a scholarly treatment of that and all the deleterious effects that flow from it.

There is no ongoing debate here about what the rightwingnuts are doing on the voting rights front -- it's all common and agreed upon knowledge -- so why would there be comparable material posted on the matter?

[LondonReign2]

52. You don't like information coming out that makes Obama look bad

OK.

WTF does that have to do with voter suppression? (Don't bother, that was a rhetorical question. I know the answer: nothing).

These arguments are-sorry, I can't think of a better term--dumb.

[uponit7771]

55. not, if Obama cured cancer bashers, wingers and SnowGangers would say he's putting doctors

...out of work so there's no pleasing that gang...they'll always see Obama and Americas government in a bad light

[JoeyT]

56. Ah, yes. There's the "Blame America!!!" claim

that right wingers love so much. You managed to complain about right wingers AND use one of their favorite demonizations of the left in a single sentence. Well done.

The more I see the die-hard defenders of the president rage at the left the more convinced I become that their complaints about Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc are actually complaints that they're wearing the wrong jersey rather than anything to do with their policies.

[uponit7771]

57. Wrong, blame America's government...seems KKKons and SnowGangers see them as totally different...

...and no one is defending the NSA ... people just trust SnowGlen and SnowGangers (aka fudr) a lot less looking at the facts than what is happening in the agencies.


Too many people using techinical disinformation, including SnowGlen, to stoke...

FAUX news hearts Snowden...

enough for me to quesiton the whole bit

[Octafish]

3. Secret Laws and Secret Government are un-American.

No Oversight means No Accountability and No Responsibility.

It also means that the beneficiaries of all these secret laws, programs and deals are unknown. "Trust us" doesn't cut it when there's trillions to be made.

Secret Government is an issue that cuts across ideological, party and class lines like nothing else. People aren't stupid. They see the rich keep getting richer and everyone else getting stuck with the tab.

[ucrdem]

12. If this isn't oversight and accountability, what would you call it?

This is the full executive summary, with names redacted by The Post, of a classified internal report on breaches of NSA privacy rules and legal restrictions. The report covers the period from January through March 2012 and includes comparative data for the full preceding year. Its author is director of oversight and compliance for the NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate:

http://apps.washingtonpost.com/g/page/national/nsa-report-on-privacy-violations-in-the-first-quarter-of-2012/395/

[Octafish]

14. All that would never have seen the light of day were it not for Snowden.

So, there's that.

[ucrdem]

16. Says who?

Looks pretty carefully prepared for an internal compliance doc.

[Octafish]

17. Says history.

Why do you think the current administration is putting the screws to Assange, Manning and Snowden and everyone else who brings up the subject of illegal NSA spying? Who's all that protected the most, besides Bush and Cheney? The warmongering traitors at the top of the heap:

Stratfor & Goldman Sachs started hedge fund called Stratcap to trade on illegal inside gov't info

"Stratfor’s use of insiders for intelligence soon turned into a money-making scheme of questionable legality. The emails show that in 2009 then-Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz and Stratfor CEO George Friedman hatched an idea to "utilise the intelligence" it was pulling in from its insider network to start up a captive strategic investment fund. CEO George Friedman explained in a confidential August 2011 document, marked DO NOT SHARE OR DISCUSS : "What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like". The emails show that in 2011 Goldman Sach’s Morenz invested "substantially" more than $4million and joined Stratfor’s board of directors. Throughout 2011, a complex offshore share structure extending as far as South Africa was erected, designed to make StratCap appear to be legally independent. But, confidentially, Friedman told StratFor staff : "Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral... It will be useful to you if, for the sake of convenience, you think of it as another aspect of Stratfor and Shea as another executive in Stratfor... we are already working on mock portfolios and trades". StratCap is due to launch in 2012. "

http://wikileaks.org/the-gifiles.html

BTW: I don't give a flying ratfuck for the argument that it's all legal. As anyone who's read the Constitution of the United States knows, it isn't.

[ucrdem]

20. Remember Pat Tillman? Who expressed disillusionment in his private correspondence?

He did nothing illegal and his reward for throwing away a pro football career to avenge 9/11 was to get extra-judicially whacked. Personal effects destroyed, sorry mom. End of story.

That's how Bush and Cheney dealt with criticism. Bradley Manning, whose only clearly expressed motive was to give Hillary Clinton a heart attack, committed what amounts to treason, even if he wasn't convicted of it, and his reward has been a perfectly civilized court martial conducted under the full glare of a hostile international press.

That's the difference between legal and illegal and you really should give a flying ratfuck.

[Octafish]

28. Is this the first time you've posted on Pat Tillman, ucrdem?

I see via GOOGLE where you commented on a thread that included his name:

http://sync.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3081549

Other than that, I did not find your contributions on the subject. Here's mine:

New Evidence Clearly Indicates Pat Tillman Was Executed

Speaking of heroes:

Know your BFEE: They kill good soldiers like Col. Ted Westhusing for profit.

Probably too young to remember him. He mentioned a famous name you may've heard about:

Is David Petraeus Dirty? Ted Westhusing Said So, and Then He Shot Himself.

Integrity is a common theme to people like Tillman and Westhusing. Wish there were more like them in government.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

46. Thank you.

Always good to see your informative posts.

[David Krout]

31. Which steps were taken to correct the errors?

.

[ucrdem]

35. Funny you should ask . . .

from a speech I imagine had been in the works long before Snowball popped up to help wingers steal a little of Obama's thunder:

Obama Proposes Surveillance-Policy Overhaul
Updated August 9, 2013



The most significant proposal would restructure the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the secret court that oversees surveillance programs in the U.S., to provide for an advocate for privacy concerns.

Mr. Obama is also seeking unspecified reforms to the Patriot Act to increase oversight and place more constraints on the provision that permits government seizure of business records.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324522504579002653564348842.html

[David Krout]

38. dude, Obama gave that speech after the leaks

#2, which steps were taken was my question. You were talking of the NSA's own oversight.

[ucrdem]

40. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first steps

which were taken in 2009. Right now we're at about 250 miles. The rest you can figure out.

[David Krout]

41. Which steps were those? Did the errors decrease from 2011 to 2012? nt

[ucrdem]

43. Quadrupling the NSA oversight staff, for one thing.

As you can see from the report I posted here, that investment is paying off nicely.

[Fire Walk With Me]

50. Exactly. n/t

[Rex]

54. +1

nt.

[DevonRex]

60. Which is why that document should have been provided to Congress.

Not doing so allowed the Intelligence Committee to present the information as they liked. Whereas having the document in front of the Representatives would have allowed them to formulate their questions in advance.

Mike Rogers didn't want that to happen. There was something new, a change from the previous one. And I wonder why nobody asked, or if they did ask, why there wasn't a WH document like they'd had previously. And what true answer was. Surely someone asked.

[Hydra]

7. That would be everyone mucking this up now

The White House(and DoJ by extension), the Congressional Intel Committees and the Judicial Branch.

No wonder they are so furious with Snowden. They thought they could keep the lid shut on this for 8 more years.

[liberal_at_heart]

23. You are right about that. It seems everybody has screwed it up.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The strategy being

to stir PEOPLE into action to MAKE their Congress critters do their jobs. They have deferred for far too long insisting that the Executive Branch can legislate away Congress' failed policies.

[Triana]

10. Key paragraph....

...further down the article:

A spokeswoman for the House committee, Susan Phalen, declined to say whether the panel had voted to withhold the letter or if the decision was made by Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).

“Because the letter by itself did not fully explain the programs, the Committee offered classified briefings, open to all Members of Congress, that not only covered all of the material in the letter but also provided much more detail in an interactive format with briefers available to fully answer any Members’ questions,” Phalen wrote in an e-mail. “The discussion of the letter not being distributed is a side issue intended to give the false impression that Congress was denied information. That is not the case.”

This particular situation is beyond/outside of Obama. If he wrote a letter to Congress informing them of the collection of phone call data in order to foster legislative examination and discussion before reauthorization of the Patriot Act - but the letter didn't make it to Congress, then someone on said Committee(s) made the decision to withhold the letter and to hold classified briefings in lieu of it. If this lazy, do-nothing Congress that only works about 1/3 of the goddamned year didn't bother to attend briefings, that's also not Obama's fault.

He isn't blameless in this entire NSA spying issue. No one is. But this particular instance, it seems the blame falls on this committee and/or Congress - not Obama.

[Cha]

49. Thanks Triana

[Fire Walk With Me]

51. I do not see a single word against Obama in this entire thread.

Responding to things which are not even there?

[questionseverything]

62. But this particular instance, it seems the blame falls on this committee and/or Congress - not

current admin/////

looks to me like a repub chairman denied info from the pres to congress....how is this legal?

[leftstreet]

11. Gvt branches throwing each other under the bus = priceless

We now pause in our programming to give the serfs a welcome break!

DURec

[mick063]

13. If you are defending, you are losing.

Competent leaders follow up on important details. If this was extremely important to the President, he would not be caught by surprise a month later. He would not simply send off a letter and call it a day.

This communication was apparently not important to the President. He didn't ensure that his intended audience received the message. He didn't communicate with Congress to gauge their support. He didn't pick up a phone and say "What is your opinion on this?" If he did, he would have heard, "What letter?"

He was preoccupied with Snowden instead.

[liberal_at_heart]

24. He went on tv saying we didn't do these things. Then the audit shows we did.

If he was uninformed and that is giving him the benefit of the doubt then he should have used the time between when the documents were leaked until now to inform himself. Instead he did as you said and used that time to go after Snowden.

[uponit7771]

42. If you're stoking you're standing out, leaders aren't all knowing...I like Obama's response so far..

...even if it could better

But this shows Obama was taking steps to inform congress, bashers and fudrs could care less though...Obama could've lit his hair on fire and ran around the white house with a blue speedo on and bashers would still bash

regards

[hootinholler]

21. I would love to know the exact distribution of that memo.

Who got it and then sat on it?

[MotherPetrie]

34. Awww... the congressional dog ate the White House's homework!

Doesn't change the WH grade of F.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

45. For some reason, the buck always stops somewhere else.

[hueymahl]

47. Most succinct and accurate post of the lot

Intentions, like words, don't really matter. Actions do.

[DirkGently]

37. Frantic blame chucking will now ensue.

Good.

[WillyT]

39. K & R !!!

[JoeyT]

58. I'm not sure why people are raging in defense of Obama in this thread.

It looks like he did what he should've done. The intelligence committee is who fucked this up, and they should shoulder the blame for it.