Obama's Civil-Liberties Record Questioned

Wall Street Journal ^ | June 6 ,2013 | y PETER NICHOLAS and JESS BRAVIN

[lbryce]

Phone Surveillance Cited as Latest Failure by President to Uphold Rights; Others Say Tactic Is Crucial in Fighting Terrorism.

The disclosure of a broad government effort to collect phone records of millions of U.S. consumers has rekindled a debate about President Barack Obama's commitment to civil liberties, with some lawmakers and advocacy groups saying he has broken a campaign pledge to combat terrorism in ways that protect basic freedoms.

Mr. Obama's record on civil liberties was already drawing renewed scrutiny over reports that his administration has investigated journalists as part of criminal leak cases, his increased use of drones and other matters.

[lbryce]

Civil liberties advocate? Oh, yeah.
He has broken a campaign pledge to combat terrorism in ways that protect basic freedoms. Ooh. He's broken a campaign pledge. With an allegation against like that, you know we've got him now.

[jsanders2001]

The Left are too proud to acknowledge that a monkey would have done a better job and that the man is a traitor of the highest order who would have been hung years ago. He is just a talking head that talks a big game but delivers nothing.

[ballplayer]

I prefer to think,just like most people,they will not admit,or they are ashamed that,they were made to be suckers

[Piranha]

People are forgetting that this government has identified Tea Partiers, gun control advocates and other conservatives as “terrorists”. When we read that the phone spying efforts were aimed at rooting out terrorists and their networks, I do not think that the government thinks that “terrorist” means what we think it means. I think that they wanted to monitor US calling patterns to identify conservatives and their allies.