To: VerySadAmerican
No, but I did watch this week's PBS "Frontline" 2 hour program (1st of 2 parts) on the NSA - fascinating history of the operation up through the Bush years, how their programs were cut back after they "spied on dissidents" under Nixon, felt they were handicapped in what they wanted to do thereafter, expanded radically under what they thought was the law after 911, the internal disputes and eventual whistleblowing by those who disagreed with the expansions, how AG Ashcroft at one point refused to endorse the routine 45 day extension of the program because his lawyers were saying it was unconstitutional, how new laws were invoked to keep it going and Congress was involved to write law to legitimize it, how Obama, running for the presidency, promised great "transparency" and to end "illegal" spying, voted for the new law and once president continued the "illegal" practices he had run against. Next week's installment starts with Snowden's revelations and what they've wrought....
If you discount the obvious admiration some of the narrators have for the whistleblowers and disdain for what the government was trying to do to keep the country safe, it seems a pretty-well balanced presentation....
To: Intolerant in NJ
I was flipping back and forth between CBS (Person of Interest) and PBS because I wanted to see both shows. PBS Frontline story revealed much, was surprised how much they expose the corruptions within government/NSA. The follow-up should be good too.
28 posted on
05/13/2014 10:26:58 PM PDT by
Cedar
To: Intolerant in NJ
Yes, I watched frontline tonight. A friend called to tell us this was on. Very informative, shocking and sad for those who were harrassed and punished for thinking we were the same country we grew up in.
Part II is on Frontline, next Tuesday. I am interested in seeing the Snowden story laid out.
29 posted on
05/13/2014 10:39:25 PM PDT by
RitaOK
( VIVA CHRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming.)
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