One more thing.
The Nuremberg trials taught us that just following orders is NO EXCUSE.
If a law is being broken it is the duty under law of all those who swore an oath to uphold and protect the U.S. Constitution to report it. Saying you were just “following orders” is NO EXCUSE.
That’s what Snowden did. He fled because the Traitors within in the government wants him dead or locked up for exposing them. I don’t understand how you cannot grasp this?
It’s real simple everyone, including government agencies, must follow the law. If they do not like the law, then change it through the proper channels.
We are either a nation of laws or we are not. It’s just that simple.
Sorry to disappoint, but my pragmatic self, seasoned by decades of real life, concludes that our laws are no more absolutes than the minds of those administering and interpreting them.
Two Presidents, advised by their top ranking constitutional lawyers, concluded that CinC does have not only a right, but an obligation to protect us as citizens.
I agree with the bulk data collection, just as I agree that we did the correct, wise thing to isolate some Japanese, Italian and German residents during WWII.
One man’s “civil right” to not be surveiled conflicts with another man’s “civil right” to “life,” and the President is charged with making tough decisions about the priorities for each on given days, under different circumstances, and resolve the conflict.
I don’t understand how you cannot grasp this?