President Obama: Release Water Conference Findings, Protect Childen, Implement Change
@ Change.org
Jon Rappoport: Obama: one if by land, two if by sea, three if by metadata
Corruption, Government
Obama: one if by land, two if by sea, three if by metadata
In his Friday speech, Obama ignored the essence of the FISA Court, the secret body that’s rubber-stamped warrants to do surveillance for the past 35 years.
Most of these requests for warrants come from NSA and the FBI, and only government attorneys may appear before the Court, none of whose decisions are made public. Therefore, the Court is a de facto piece of the Executive Branch, and as such its existence violates the separation of powers principle of the Constitution.
One of Snowden’s documents revealed that FISA had approved a blanket warrant requiring Verizon to make available, to NSA, records of all daily phone calls in its system.
No, President Obama said nothing about this. Instead, he led off his speech on the NSA and national security with these words:
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Betty Boop: Tomgram on Nick Turse, Secret Wars, & Black Ops Blowback — US Government Learning Impaired & Morally Challenged
04 Inter-State Conflict, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Peace Intelligence
Tomgram: Nick Turse, Secret Wars and Black Ops Blowback
Nick Turse is the author of Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam, just now out in paperback.
Tom: These days, when I check out the latest news on Washington’s global war-making, I regularly find at least one story that fits a new category in my mind that I call: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
EXTRACTS:
SchwartzReport: NSA as Foundation for Police State with Comment on “Parallel Construction”
05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Law Enforcement, Military
Here are the views of a former high ranking NSA official. They remind me of Richard Clarke.
Just because authority at this point only intrudes to a small degree does not mean it cannot go much further. The information will be there to work with. And there are thousands of laws.
I am always concerned I may seem alarmist about a trend but, really I'm just reporting the data, the emerging information. President Obama's comment today that this network of agencies is made up of our neighbors is patently disingenuous.
Click through to see the actual powerpoint slides that document this piece.
Former Top NSA Official: ‘We Are Now In A Police State”
WashingtonBlog
David Swanson: Obama’s 4th Amendment Speech Deceitful, Even His Fans Are Dismayed
Corruption, Government
Even Obama Fans Aren't Pretending That Was a Good Speech
President Barack Obama gave a eulogy for the Fourth Amendment on Friday, and not even his fans are proclaiming victory. In this moment when Obama is actually doing one thing I agree with (talking to Iran), more and more people seem to be slowly, agonizingly slowly, finally, finally, finally, recognizing what a complete huckster he is when it comes to pretty speeches about his crimes.
Obama's speech and new “policy directive” eliminate the Fourth Amendment. Massive bulk collection of everybody's data will continue unconstitutionally, but Obama has expressed a certain vague desire to end it, sort of, except for the parts that are needed, but not to do so right away. The comparisons to the closure of the Guantanamo death camp began instantly.
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Chuck Spinney: Corrupt Congress Spends on Contractor Waste Instead of Human Core
Corruption, Government
WEEKEND EDITION JANUARY 17-19, 2014
Defense Spending: Putting Toys Before Boys
by FRANKLIN C. SPINNEY, Counterpunch
Being pro-defense in the Hall of Mirrors of Versailles on the Potomac means, in the salty words of my late friend Col. David Hackworth, one of the U.S. Army’s most decorated combat soldiers, putting “the toys before boys.”
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4th Media: NSA Metadata Collection Fourth Amendment Violation
Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Military
NSA Metadata Collection: Fourth Amendment Violation
Edward Snowden, who worked for the National Security Agency (NSA), revealed a secret order of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), that requires Verizon to produce on an “ongoing daily basis… all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’ created by Verizon for communications (i) between the United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls.”
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