NSA surveillance: anger mounts in Congress at 'spying on Americans'

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Guardian

Anger was mounting in Congress on Tuesday night as politicians, briefed for the first time after revelations about the government's surveillance dragnet, vowed to rein in a system that one said amounted to "spying on Americans".

Intelligence chiefs and FBI officials had hoped that the closed-door briefing with a full meeting of the House of Representatives would help reassure members about the widespread collection of US phone records revealed by the Guardian.

But senior figures from both parties emerged from the meeting alarmed at the extent of a surveillance program that many claimed never to have heard of until whistleblower Edward Snowden leaked a series of top-secret documents.

The congressional fury came at the end of a day of fast-moving developments.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/anger-mounts-congress-telephone-surveillance-programmes

[Ed Suspicious]

1. Thanks UK for keeping us informed when our news figures do not.

[harun]

2. +1

[AnotherMcIntosh]

7. +2

[valerief]

27. +3

[The Green Manalishi]

3. Time to repeal the PATRIOT act and defund the NSA

Give their budget to PBS

[pmorlan1]

4. Good piece

That article gave a lot of info about what's happening as a result of the NSA reporting. Here are just a few:

On Capitol Hill, a group of US senators introduced a bill aimed at forcing the US federal government to disclose the opinions of a secretive surveillance court that determines the scope of the eavesdropping on Americans' phone records and internet communications.

• A leading member of the Senate intelligence committee, Ron Wyden, came close to saying that James Clapper, the US director of national intelligence, misled him on the scope of government surveillance during a March hearing. Clapper admitted earlier this week that he gave the "least untruthful" answer possible to a question by Wyden.

• Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary, said he ordered a wide-ranging review of the Defense Department's reliance on private contractors. Snowden had top-security clearance for his work at Booz Allen Hamilton, an NSA contractor. Booz Allen issued a statement on Tuesday saying that Snowden had been fired for "violations of the firm's code of ethics".

• In Brussels, the European commission's vice-president, Viviane Reding, sent a letter demanding answers to seven detailed questions to the US attorney general, Eric Holder, about Prism and other American data snooping efforts.

[christx30]

20. I love that.. The "least untruthful" answer

It's like when your wife accuses you of cheating on her with her best friend Sally. You deny it, because it was actually her friend Jane.

[DCKit]

40. OMG, I'm sleeping with Jane too.

It's almost as if you and I were sleeping together.

[jakeXT]

5. Sure....."many claimed never to have heard" /nt

[sharp_stick]

6. This is funny

I'd like to know where the anger was when the fucking Patriot Act was first passed. Holy shit these fuckwits were getting hurt climbing all over each other to kiss GWB's ass when this atrocity was "debated". And then again when they made it permanent. You reap what you sow, and this is the harvest.

Now that they've been caught out, after approving every step of it they start this kind of bullshit.

They've never heard of it, fuck that noise all the way to every Congressional district in the fucking country.!

Anybody, and I mean anybody, that's been paying even the most basic attention to the security apparatus in this country since 2001 isn't the least bit surprised by any of these "revelations". The phony fucking outrage is more infuriating than the actual NSA. I claim that any Congressperson or Senator that says they've never heard of it is nothing but a fucking liar.

[KansDem]

14. "Shocked to discover spying is going on..."

What to do? Let's try repealing Obamacare for the 38th time!

[SunSeeker]

37. Exactly the scene that came to my mind when I read that. nt

[Babel_17]

8. It's Kabuki theater, but it's neccesary Kabuki theater

In order to get even a semblance of control of the unfathomable level of data that the government and private contractors collect; our elected representatives and other personages need first to be allowed to construct faces of dismay and concern. They need to march to the microphones and exclaim their innocence and outrage.

After all that then maybe some tuning of the system will take place.

[RobinA]

29. Exactly

Better late than never. Next stop - outrage and surprise that we are detaining people in Cuba without due process.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

9. Sooner or later, at least one of the Representatives is going to start using the word "impeachment."

[totodeinhere]

32. Impeachment is a silly idea. But that doesn't mean that we should not oppose the surveillance

state. I oppose these tactics by the NSA and I hope that the president that I voted for twice and would vote for again if I could will change his attitude on this topic.

[6000eliot]

10. If any of these people voted for the Patriot Act, then they have no business raising these questions

CONGRESS authorized this.

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Here are the 10 Democratic Senators who voted No on the reauthorization in 2006

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Murray (D-WA)
Wyden (D-OR)

Not one Republican.
In the House, 63 Democrats voted against it, 3 Republicans.
http://educate-yourself.org/cn/patriotact20012006senatevote.shtml

[christx30]

21. Yeah. They have no right to be shocked

about this. They were warned that this was going to happen. They probably did not understand the extent of the abuse that would happen. Guess people did not learn from Hoover's tapping of just about everyone. When you give someone just a little power, they will abuse it. It's human nature. I know I wouldn't trust myself to be even a mall security guard, which is why I work in tech support.
But I run every call with an iron fist.

[RobinA]

30. Just So

they are shocked eventually, and then act on it, I'll take what I can get. Late conversions are still conversions.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. And, yet, Colbert just showed clips of FoxNews pundits embracing the

NSA wiretaps as if it was Bush's fourth term.

[Sunlei]

12. ok boys, the next time your terror laws come for a vote..Congress has to vote against them :P

[pscot]

13. Kick

[dawnie51]

16. Is this not exactly what these jerks voted for in 2006?

What did they think the Patriot Act was? They thought this was hunky dory back then, but now,with THIS president, all of a sudden this is just terrible. The Republican party continues to expose itself as inept, corrupt and lacking any moral compass whatsoever.

[Bluenorthwest]

17. My Senators are Democrats, one voted No in 2006, the other was elected in 2008

in part because the Republican he replaced voted Yes. Both of my Senators have long been voicing concerns about these programs and asking for open debate. On the other hand, many Republicans are saying they are in support of these programs and of the secrecy around them. The facts create many contradictions when placed next to your post.

[leftyladyfrommo]

18. Oh, my God, the outrage!

Of course they all voted for it. But it's not a popular idea any more. Everyone just changes sides when the political wind shifts.

It's an absolutely amazing thing to watch.

[Bluenorthwest]

19. Point of fact: of the 8 Senators mentioned in this article not one voted for reauthorization

in 2006. So 'they all voted for it' is simply inaccurate in terms of this article.

[nineteen50]

22. It

is time to stop the tyranny of the power-elite, the oligarchy that owns both political parties and has wrapped itself in the authority and cloak of the American government.

[Laelth]

23. In some ways, this is just funny.

Puts the lie to the apologists who claim "everybody already knew about this" when members of Congress come out and say they had never heard about it.

Of course, I don't believe them. I think they're afraid of their constituents, now, in a way they were not a few days ago. I think that's healthy for our republic.

-Laelth

[mikeysnot]

26. They don't know by choice

they don't read the bills, they just rubber stamp the legislation their money handlers tell them to pass.

Privatized profits, socialized costs.

[ReRe]

24. The Guardian is turning out to be our salvation...

K&R

...since the USA no longer has a free press that informs it's Peoples. Thank you, Guardian!

[WillyT]

25. K & R !!!

[WillyT]

31. My Favorite Sentence In This Article...

But as attention switched from the leaker to the issues raised by his actions now looks increasingly certain that Congress will take steps to try to rein in the power of the intelligence services.

GOOD !!!

[Just Saying]

28. This article gives me the mental picture of congressmen slapping themselves like

The 3 stooges!

Are they angry they passed the law making this legal?

Are they angry just because its Obama who has this authority now?

Are they angry they didn't read what they voted for?

It's redundant to say but this Congress is a joke. And not a funny one!

[totodeinhere]

33. Here is another good article from the Guardian.

"NSA surveillance played little role in foiling terror plots, experts say."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/12/nsa-surveillance-data-terror-attack

This shoots a hole in the argument that we read at DU and elsewhere that we need to sacrifice some of our civil liberties in order to remain safe from terrorism.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

34. "briefed for the first time"

Pure crap. They've known about this all along.

The goal is to get America mad at Obama and they're seeing if this will do it.

After all, nothing else they tried worked.

[SunSeeker]

38. +1

[DCKit]

41. No kidding. I'm gettint tired of trying to explain to people that Congress has all the power. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

35. Sure they're mad. Mad that they've been outed as the Corp. fascists that they are.

[SemperEadem]

36. most of them complaining voted for this shit back when bush was in office

so why are they all screaming now about it? Why weren't they screaming about it then?

[Hekate]

39. If they're so upset, let them repeal the USA PATRIOT ACT

Go to it, boys and girls!