Posted on 06/23/2013 10:21:40 AM PDT by markomalley
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was booed onstage Saturday when she said former government contractor Edward Snowden broke the law by leaking classified documents on National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs.
Speaking at the NetRoots Nation conference in San Jose, Calif., Pelosi told the audience to reject comparisons between President Barack Obama and his predecessor, President George W. Bush, on their oversight of surveillance programs. The top House Democrat said Obama is poised to reveal "in another few days, a few more proceedings" of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Pelosi received the loudest boos and heckles from the crowd when she said Snowden had run afoul of the law by leaking documents to the media on a pair of secret NSA surveillance programs.
"He did violate the law in terms of releasing those documents," Pelosi said, drawing a thunder of boos from the crowd at the progressive conference. "I understand, I understand, but he did violate the law. And the fact is that, again, we have to have the balance between security and privacy, and we don't know what sources and methods may have been revealed, which is a tough thing."
"I feel sad that this had to come down to this because I know some of you attribute heroic status to that action, but again, you don't have the responsibility for the security of the U.S.," she added. "Those of us who do have to strike a different balance."
Federal prosecutors have charged Snowden with espionage and theft of government property, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Friday night.
Pelosi defended Obama's handling of the surveillance programs, noting that he met with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Board for the first time on Friday. The federal board helps address concerns with the NSA's surveillance programs.
"The fact is that you should reject any notion that President Obama's actions have anything to do with what President Bush was doing or was done," Pelosi said, adding that there was no Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court under the Bush administration.
When the moderator of the panel discussion, Zerlina Maxwell, tried to quiet the hecklers, Pelosi said she welcomed the opportunity for debate.
"I think that it's really important for this discussion to take place," she said, before being interrupted by a yell in the crowd. "I think it's really important to subject all of this to the most transparent and harshest scrutiny to say, 'OK, we want a balance between security and privacy and freedom.'"
But shortly after Pelosi was booed over her comments on Snowden, she received applause from the crowd by declaring that "the real crime is outsourcing our national security."
"I'm with you, babe, all the way," Pelosi said, responding to a comment shouted out from a person in the crowd that criticized the government's outsourcing of defense work. "The real problem is outsourcing our national security. I am so with you on that."
In particular, she noted that former NSA Director Mike McConnell had bounced back and forth between working for Booz Allen Hamilton and the intelligence community, and over the years the company had secured several contracts from the federal government.
"This really is astounding," Pelosi said. "It's astounding. It's wrong."
Regarding immigration, Pelosi stressed the need for Congress to pass legislation that improves the country's immigration laws. Pelosi said she hoped House Republicans learned their lesson from the outcome of the failed farm bill vote this past week when it comes time to vote on immigration.
"I'm hoping that really they will have some lessons learned about…the amateurishness about how they approached it, so they can sweep that aside as we go forward with the immigration bill, which must pass," she said.
At the end of the discussion, Pelosi signaled that she would support former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton if she ran for president in 2016.
"I think soon we will have a female president," Pelosi said, while quickly adding that she didn't know whether Clinton will formally run.
But I do find it funny that the netroots libtards find it stylish to not approve of this. (Of course, one should ask if this would have any impact on them voting for Ø in the future...)
Bush the evil spymaster vs Obama, the benevolent watcher, peace be upon him, the hero of benghazi
Politicians do it all the time. Snowden would make a great politician.
Let's go after the real traitors. That would be those that allowed the deaths at Benghazi to happen, and that includes those who planned events that led up to it.
I'm sure this may cause a little embarrassment to the regime and may even irritate emperor Hussein, but it DOES NOT AMOUNT TO TREASON, quite the contrary. Those members of the Hussein 0bama regime, including the kenyan usurper himself, are committing TREASON by violating MY CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS!
Hi Edward, lovely weather we are having in Russia!
” Snow den, bear, cryptography, what else is new!”
Do you have any friends in Ecuador?
“Sure, Ben Ghazi, good friend of mine!”
Do you know Ben well?
” Well enough to know that Barack Obama is scared to death of him! That’s why he wants me home!”
If Snowden hadn’t fled the country , I am sure that the Fed’s would say that he was reaching for an agents gun when he was killed.
He had no immediate safe ‘neutral’ country to which he could flee
So much for the “most open and transparent administration “ that we were promised .
There seems to be a large number of bodies whenever we have a Demo administration.
I just call it what it is : “ Arkancide “
Madam Speaker once again speak with forked tongue.
She is right that was a crime.
For Pelosi it is a crime to have ANY workers working that are not in the mind numbed robots hired by the public sector or if in the private sector, it is a crime if they are not unionized.
The crime is that the spy state grew so large collecting data on EVERYONE on God's green earth, that it had to look for IT guys under rocks that are twenty nine year old slackers with more brains than the normal Big Brother indoctrinated products of public education.
Hey you Twisted Little Sister, cut the crap, size matters to you, and you like Big Brother big, real BIG.
Hmm, let me see, who is the traitor, Snowden or Pelosi?
I know who i prefer be tried and executed, and it isn’t a he in this case...
no kidding
It’s always nice to see Queen Nancy get booed.
anyone have a vid of this?
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- Facts are stubborn things -
“The fact is that you should reject any notion that President Obama’s actions have anything to do with what President Bush was doing or was done,” Pelosi said, adding that there was no Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court under the Bush administration.
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THE FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT OF 1978
- Enacted by the, 95th United States Congress ...
The Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978 (”FISA” Pub. ... 1977, by SENATOR TED KENNEDY and was signed into law by PRESIDENT JIMMY CARTER in ...
It allowed surveillance, without court
order, within the United States for up to one year unless the “surveillance will
acquire the ...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Act -
-
PS :
HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), who organized Democratic support for the bill in the House, said that she supported the bill primarily because it rejects BUSH’S argument that a wartime chief executive has the “inherent authority” to conduct some surveillance activity he considers necessary to fight terrorism. It restores the legal notion that the FISA law is the exclusive rule on government spying, she said, and added:
“This is a democracy. It is not a monarchy.”
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Here you go:
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