Posted on 06/16/2013 5:32:55 PM PDT by aMorePerfectUnion
It's becoming increasingly difficult to give the government the benefit of the doubt in regards to dragnet domestic surveillance.
Even before Glenn Greenwald published a top secret court order compelling Verizon to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems and interviewed NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, there were credible reports that the NSA was intercepting U.S. communications.
The most significant of those occurred in July, when the court that was established to "hear applications for and grant orders approving electronic surveillance," called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), found that the NSA violated the Fourth Amendment's restriction against unreasonable searches and seizures "on at least one occasion."
Here's the letter from Senator Ron Wyden:
" on at least one occasion the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held that some collection carried out pursuant to section 702 minimization procedures used by the government was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment."
We don't know the details of the classified order, but it's clear that it's a very important aspect of the domestic spying apparatus that even the court overseeing the program found it straying into illegal territory.
Here's the relevant text of the amendment:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Who at the NSA will be charged with a crime?
Who at the NSA will go to jail?
So. Do they already know they’ve acted against the fourth amendment and are trying to cya ? What is the penalty for not supporting the constitution? The penalty for becoming a domestic enemy ?
Pray for America !
When did the constitution become relevant again? Obama has already said it’s a flawed document containing only negative liberties.
There are a lot of us out here who really applaud and appreciate NSA and indeed all the fine govt workers who are trying to protect us. We just get very worried when we read about the govt listening to our domestic phone calls or email or otherwise compiling dossiers on us all. We are American citizens and we are presumed innocent of any crimes, especially when there’s not even been any charges brought.
We thought these various offices were to protect us against foreign enemies, and if our open borders has left a lot of the muslim terrorists into our country, the thing to do is to send them back to their home countries.
Just saying
++ Good. Eh comrade?
One? Out of how many cases???
I think everyone would agree that the NSA does this kind of data capture and analysis against our enemies all the time. It’s their job.
The only question then is, are they doing the same thing to US citizens, in some form?
I support the mission of NSA, but to my mind, there is very little doubt that the answer is “yes”. When an agency operates largely “black”, it’s hard to prove anything, but we shall see....
But violate the living breathing document, or forge a birth certificate to obtain the highest office in the land as an enemy trojan horse and you will get off free free free wee hee
I still want to see a list of the terror plots that they have prevented. WITH NAMES AND COUNTRY of origin. Case closed.
“One? Out of how many cases???”
How many violations of the Constitution by a secret government agency are acceptable to you?
the patriot act is more important than the Constitution
“We are American citizens and we are presumed innocent of any crimes, especially when theres not even been any charges brought.”
That indeed used to be true.
i suggest we nuke it from orbit, just to be sure.
no, i am not kidding. not freaking kidding. preferably when they are all in the big black building.
personally i don’t care. this can’t be allowed to continue, and it cannot go unpunished.
“i suggest we nuke it from orbit, just to be sure.”
you gonna end up in a FEMA camp boy!
And you gonna have lots of company.
The guy with the mop.
Dallas59 ~:” I still want to see a list of the terror plots that they have prevented. WITH NAMES AND COUNTRY of origin. Case closed.”
Exactly !!
This is an organization which is supposed to be supervized by the Senate Foreign Intelligence Committee .
Since Diane Fienstein ,committee chair of that committee , doesn’t foster any warm feelings of security to my mind ,
I believe NSA is basicly unsupervised and has no meaningful oversight .
Obviously , they can , and have , ‘fluffed’ the committee in the past , and continue to do so now .
Obviously , the organization has by its own authorization , and by its own public admission , strayed from its intended purpose .
Instead of useful foreign intelligence regarding terrrorism , it has redirected its’ own
information gathering meta-data resources to American citizens on American soil.
McConnell’s suggestion that if ‘we have done nothing wrong that we then have nothing to worry about’ is beyond absurd !!
McCain must be sharing his meds with McConnell. They are both the ‘useful idiots’ that Lenin spoke of so highly .
It means that our own government believes that we are the potential terrorists either now , or in the future.
#1) That means that when we have ‘known terrorists’ who can be identified through profiling of extreme beliefs,and
#2) who already acknowledge a history of commiting atrocious acts by are ignored , by fiat of our government
#3) and that resource is then re-directed towards the general American citizenry
#4) that this secret organization maintains a list of American contacts on its citizen population,
#5) then the government clearly believes that we are the potential terrorists .. What !! (say that again, out loud !!)
And it is our own government, the current administration, that continues to thrive on this data , obtained in violation of Constitutional standards
and encourages this continued information gathering and preparations of lists of associates.
Provide a list of the terror plots that they have prevented. WITH NAMES AND COUNTRY of origin. Case closed.!!
No list ,.. no continued funding !
Those that would sacrifice liberty for security will
in the end have neither, nor deserve neither. ~ Ben Franklin
sfl
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