Posted on 06/10/2013 5:39:31 AM PDT by IbJensen
‘Under This Logic, They Can Do Anything!’
In the last 24 hours, it has been revealed that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been indiscriminately monitoring all Verizon phone records for the past seven years.
The stunning revelation sent Fox News host Shep Smith and Judge Andrew Napolitano into a frenzy on Thursday. In fact, Napolitano said it represented the “most extraordinarily broad search warrant ever issued in the history of the federal courts of the United States.”
Lawmakers like Sens. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday tried to downplay the bombshell report, arguing that such surveillance has been going on for a long time and as long as you aren’t talking to terrorists, you have nothing to worry about.
“Harry Reid says we should just calm down Judge,” Smith began.
He went on to mock Reid’s position: “This has been going on a long time, they’ve been able stop some sort of terrorism, this, that or the other thing. So just don’t worry about it, just relax everybody.”
Napolitano said the “screwy” law allows the executive branch to tell select members of Congress about secret domestic surveillance programs, but prohibits them from telling other members of Congress or the American people.
“Just because Harry Reid knew about this for seven years and it’s been going on for seven years does not mean it’s constitutionally permissible,” Napolitano said. “This is a fishing expedition on the grandest scale we’ve ever seen in American history.”
He went on to say the Constitution requires the government to present evidence to a judge relating particular individuals if it wants to seize personal information like phone records of American citizens.
“Rather than doing that, they got a search warrant for 113 million phones,” Napolitano added.
“That we know of!” Smith interjected.
Judge Napolitano then speculated that Director of National Intelligence James Clapper “lied under oath” when he testified that the NSA wasn’t collecting any type of data at all on hundreds of millions of Americans.
“Not wittingly,” Clapper said in March. “There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly.”
Smith went on to say that only the court order relating to Verizon’s records have leaked, meaning that the NSA is likely monitoring other phone companies as well.
“Who are we to think they didn’t do this with all of them?” he asked.
The idea that Americans would sacrifice liberty for safety is a “canard,” Napolitano chimed in. He said “this is the most extraordinarily broad search warrant ever issued in the history of the federal courts of the United States.”
“Under this logic, the government could send people to all of our homes, put them in a bed next to us, have them watch everything. Under this logic, they can do anything!” Smith added.
I work in an intel unit and we always have to be very, very careful when it comes to surveillance b/c of all the laws on the books about monitoring U.S. citizens.
Looks like if I just drive down the street to the NSA, then the laws are null and void!
1. "Do I trust the current regime with every shred of my personal information?"
2. "Will the current regime, or future regimes (Klinton II - 900 FBI files becomes 900 million for her perusal) use this information against me?"
3. "Am I OK with The Bill of Rights being totally invalidated on a daily basis?"
4. "Where does this all lead?"
Politicians, including the morons at the RNC should consider that any strategies, conversations, plans, etc. during a campaign are subject to the 0bama regime monitoring. If they think he would not go this far, all they have to do is look at his use of the IRS against conservative groups.
Hardly. He criticized the SCOTUS for preventing the Florida Supreme Court from stealing the election for Gore.
Read his book.
I am sure it did.
Has anyone considered for just one moment that this is why Glenn Beck left the network and started his own?
Beck was out there ...being totally truthful...and suddenly he started his own network?
Seems like he's violating them just to violate them! Buy hey! Criminal is as criminal does!
From THENCE:
Any time a leftist, Liberal, Democrat, Socialist, Communist, Obama supporter mentions Freedom and Liberty every Conservative should laugh in their faces and mock them. Obama and this Government are fast becoming the Fourth Reich.
These aren't recordings of the content of the messages, but rather records that identify which NUMBER activated the system, asked for another NUMBER, and then made a connection with that NUMBER, or with any cluster of numbers.
These laws were enacted back in the days when AT&T had a near monopoly on phone service and people were concerned that unless this information were recorded ~ and then provided to customers that AT&T could steal them blind ~ all of which was true anyway. Phone service was expensive, but popular. Today it's cheap, but still popular. Actually, it costs more than ever, but it's used more as well!
The simple solution to eliminating any possible domestic misuse of these records is to RESCIND the laws that require that they be maintained. That's not a small problem ~ after all there are federal laws and state laws. Municipal authorities that charge taxes on a per call basis also have an interest. You'd be up against every greedy politician in the country who thinks taxes are his or her inherent right.
Other uses ~ e.g. to find criminals, control telephone advertisers, regulate email spammers ~ and so forth ~ you'd have to give all that stuff up as well once these primary records were no longer created.
To a degree I"m not sure phone companies would even survive without the switching data ~ fur shur every call would need to be treated as LONG DISTANCE, and any state or federal price regulation scheme would need to be abandoned.
Still, a fixed price for simply having telecommunications service ought to be sufficient to keep a major system up and running. Assign that price to each individual in the service area (speaking of how carriers would assign costs) and allow entry by any device through any channel for known customers. That'd require hard encryption for making calls or other connections, but after that broadcasts could be made in the open like we have now.
That'd protect your privacy, as well as the privacy of the merchant class and others who find a need to contact you.
Note that the rate sysem to pay for this is simple beyond the imaginations of he Fair Tax crowd ~ so what's not to like eh?
Boston was a complete and total violation of the 4th amendment. The footsoldiers weren’t sleeping in those homes, but one could argue with the taxation schemes in place and shit like “eminent domain,” no one truly owns their home anyway.
IS the thrill gone for Shep? Oh, that’s the other guy over on MSNBC.
Shep gets a thrill running up his leg every time he sees Rachael Madcow.
FOX fired Napolitano?
Then they are no better than See-BS and the rest of them!!”!!
Not really. Obama has lost a HUGE propaganda arm when he lost the media. Perhaps now all the yellow journalists will return to true journalism and rediscover all the stories they so willingly ignored for so many years.
Au contraire, mon ami.
(A little French lingo there to show I have no bias against little froggies.)
It still works!
He wasn’t fired. He’s on all the time.
Bkmk
“Catherine Herridge just told WMAL that the Rosen affair has had a ‘chilling effect’.
Then it’s achieved it’s desired goal - to keep sources from talking to the press. “
Or keeping the press from seeking out sources.
Napolitano was moved over to Fox Business, which you may or may not have depending on your cable system. He still turns up frequently as a commentator on Fox News programs.
The video was about three minutes longer than I can tolerate Shep!
We had a piece that dwelt extensively on a house where the owner had OK’d a search ~ and there were a bunch of people there who had to go outside. Was that a 4th amendment violation, or was it a recognition of the right to private property? And was that the event you are pointing to?
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