“Far from a traitor Snowden may well have saved our liberty. I think the reason why every-body’s private phone records, e-mails etc. are being monitored is due to insidious political correctness. We cannot profile the bad guys so like the TSA we body search little old ladies in wheelchairs, toddlers and everyone else in the hopes that we might find a terrorist. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack by examining every piece of straw rather than using a metal detector since we know needles are metal.”
Bingo, my FRiend. Very well put and bares repeating, so I just did so.
The NSA has traditionally been separate from other agencies such as the FBI. The FBI still has to get a court order, warrant, or administrative summons/subpoena to obtain phone records. They did that in the case of Rosen and the media investigation for leaks.
This tells me the firewalls are still in place given that those investigations were the highest priority. There is no way Holder would have signed off on the Rosen affidavit if the DOJ could access the information through other secret means.
By law, the oversight of these programs is supposed to be done by congress. So far, the reaction of congress critters on that committee tells me they knew and agreed. I think most of us have always assumed this capability and program existed. I think many of us have always believed this argument was inevitable.
The NSA’s activities overseas have never bothered me. The NSA’s obvious activities within our own borders causes me great concern.