Simple Question: How Could President Obama Not Know That Ed Snowden Had The IG Report That Showed

[bemildred]

Widespread NSA Abuse?

Among the many stunning things in the report from Barton Gellman and the Washington Post last night was the fact that it totally debunked President Obama's statements from less than a week ago, arguing (1) that these programs were not abused and (2) that no one was "listening in on people's phone calls (see update below). Both of those appear to be untrue. Here were President Obama's direct comments at last week's press conference:

If you look at the reports, even the disclosures that Mr. Snowden’s put forward, all the stories that have been written, what you’re not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs and, you know, listening in on people’s phone calls or inappropriately reading people’s e-mails.

What you’re hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused. Now part of the reason they’re not abused is because they’re — these checks are in place, and those abuses would be against the law and would be against the orders of the FISC

And yet, the Inspector General's report shows that just in the DC area alone there were thousands of violations and abuses, and some included intercepting the content of tons of phone calls in the DC area. Update: In an update, the Washington Post admits that the report was about metadata, not actual content, and they had misreported this initially.

Now, I know that some will take the cynical stance that politicians will just lie with abandon and not care about it. But the fact is that while many (perhaps all) are less than truthful at times, they very, very rarely will bumble into making a major statement like this that can be shown to be flat out false in black and white like this in a setting where the remarks were carefully scripted. So here's the thing I don't understand: by this point, the government must at least have some idea of what documents Snowden got, even if they haven't quantified all of them. They had to know that this Inspector's General report was out there and there was a high likelihood that Snowden had leaked it as well.

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130816/01174524199/simple-question-how-could-president-obama-not-know-that-inspector-generals-report-proving-him-liar-was-leaked-as-well.shtml

[Wilms]

1. He wasn't told??

Other than the NSA, who really knows what's going on??

[bemildred]

2. I dunno. But the question has been bothering me for some time now.

And the degree of bother is getting acute. And there are not many alternatives left that explain the facts.

[Wilms]

3. And maybe the NSA DOESN'T know.

Has anyone called Booz?

[bemildred]

4. There is that. nt

[bemildred]

5. I believe they (Booz) are being "investigated".

But I haven't looked into it, how serious it is. Sometimes it's real, sometimes it's just a stalling tactic until the fuss dies down. Or it starts as a stall and the fuss doesn't die down, and we get some procedural concessions or fines and warnings, etc.

[blkmusclmachine]

6. Because maybe he lied about it???

It wouldn't be the first lie. And it won't be the last lie, either.

[bemildred]

7. The essential point is that it is stupid to stonewall when you will be immediately exposed.

It suggests various possibilities why he would do that, but none of them are good, except the it's all a ruse to help Bruce Willis save the World" sort of possibilities, if you see what I mean.

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. I thought it was Mel Gibson gonna save the World . . .

.
.
.




CC

[bemildred]

9. There are a lot of them down here, it's a very popular, competitive profession.

Babes, cars, money, having your own "people" to suck up to you when you are out of sorts, the best health care, it's a trip. People will actually pay you lots of money just to "use your name".

I just picked one of the better known ones. If I used Mel I would be attempting ridicule, and I'm not ready to ridicule Obama yet, a ways to go there.

[TheJames]

10. The whole thing is a meta-manipulation? n/t

[KoKo]

11. He pushed it off on Media Reporting. As if it was exaggeration and hype by MSM.

He seemed unengaged, like he really hadn't checked with anyone to get more information. Perhaps he doesn't want to know so that he isn't implicated in whatever else is going to come out.

Or, maybe no one knows what's going on because there was so little real supervision of the programs by Government since there were Private Contractors involved?