Two Dems Warn NSA Violations Just ‘Tip of a Larger Iceberg’

PJ Media ^ | August 16, 2013 - 2:59 pm | Bridget Johnson

[Olog-hai]

A pair of civil-liberties Democrats whom the White House tried to appease in a closed-door meeting warned today that fresh reports of thousands of privacy violations by the National Security Agency are just the “tip of a larger iceberg.”

On Thursday, the Washington Post published its report of a May 2012 audit leaked by former contractor Edward Snowden that found 2,776 violations over the previous year of executive orders and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provisions governing spying on Americans or foreign targets in the U.S. These included both computer and operator errors.

Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) have been some of President Obama’s harshest critics—within his party and outside—on domestic spying. They were among allies and foes of the NSA programs summoned by Obama to the Oval Office at the beginning of the month as he hoped to calm his detractors before promising new, vague reforms. …

[Fai Mao]

Nothing to see here folks everyone knows that demonrats would never do anything wicked S/O

[Ann Archy]

Democrats are Law-Less

Republicans are Ball-Less

[Olog-hai]

Think Udall and Wyden are going to be taken to the Ministry of Love for their offenses against Party orthodoxy . . . ?

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

One conclusion I’ve come to is...the difference between dens and repubs is there is a limit to what repubs will do to hold onto power. The dems have no limit.

[jonrick46]

Once they convert phone conversations to text they can say they are not listening. If they are listening, they need the court’s permission. If they are reading text, they do not need the court’s permission.

Through voice recognition software, phone conversations of any language can be put into English and stored as text. Text takes little storage space. Easy to do a word search when it is in text. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.

[Cowboy Bob]

In the end, they will do as they are told. After all, Party trumps personal liberty for the Democrats.

[Cyclone59]

What gets me is that two democrats have been the harshest critics...

[SunkenCiv]

Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.), doing a little CYA, thanks Olog-hai.

[Libloather]

Feinsteen says they didn't mean it.

Feinstein: NSA hasn’t ‘intentionally abused its authority’

[Timber Rattler]

“The disclosed documents demonstrate that there was no intentional and willful violation of the law and that the NSA is not collecting the email and telephone traffic of all Americans, as previously reported,” asserted House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.).

Lying NSA poodle.

[KarlInOhio]

That reminds me of a story my high school science teacher told. She wanted the polarized lenses from her husband's sunglasses for a class demonstration so she broke the frame and said “oopsie” like it was an accident. I believe the NSA has been saying “oopsie” a lot for a long time.

[Girlene]

From the article,

Today, he and Udall said “the public deserves to know more about the violations of the secret court orders that have authorized the bulk collection of Americans’ phone and email records under the USA PATRIOT Act.”

“The public should also be told more about why the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has said that the executive branch’s implementation of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has circumvented the spirit of the law, particularly since the executive branch has declined to address this concern,” they continued.

Could be as you suggested. These two are indicating that what's being collected goes beyond what even the FISA court think the intent of the Act is.

[BAW]

Would anyone be surprised to discover that Obama and cronies were listening to the conversations of their political opponents? To Congress? To federal judges? To political activists? To conservative organizations like Heritage?

Nope, didn’t think so.

[bamahead]

Libertarian ping! Click here to get added or here to be removed or post a message here!

[Ben Ficklin]

Everybody is confused because they are trying to break it out along political party lines and the issue is breaking out along foreign policy doctrine lines.

Yes Wyden and Udall are democrats, but the key is that they are antiwar pacifist democrats, And their allies on the NSA issue are the right wing isolationist republicans.

In the GOP there are 3 foreign policy groups, schools, or doctrines: Realists, NeoCons, and Isolationists.

In the dem party there are Realists, Liberal Interventionists, and Antiwar Pacifists.

The Realist Republicans, the Realist Democrats, the NeoCon Republicans, and the Liberal Interventionist Democrats all support NSA snooping activities

The Antiwar Pacifist democrats and Isolationist republicans oppose NSA snooping.

The issue of whether or not the US intervenes in Syria breaks out the same way.

[GOP Poet]

bookmark

[ModelBreaker]

“Think Udall and Wyden are going to be taken to the Ministry of Love for their offenses against Party orthodoxy . . . ?”

No. But they will lead the “meaningless-bandaid-to-prevent-electoral-damage-in 2014” brigade.

[VerySadAmerican]

“Plus”, Rogers continued “they showed me what they have on me.”

[NFHale]

“...Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) have been some of President Obama’s harshest critics...”

And yet, they’re STILL democrats...