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Congress: We Didn't Know the FBI Was Creating a Small Surveillance 'Air Force'
Errorcod3 sends a followup to last week's news that the FBI is operating a fleet of planes across the U.S. for surveillance purposes. A new article in The Atlantic points out that Congress is claiming to have had little or no awareness the fleet was being built, and is asking for answers. Quoting:
Senator Charles Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, demanded to be briefed (PDF) no later than this week on "the scope, nature, and purpose of these operations and what legal authorities, if any, are being relied upon in carrying out these operations." Sixteen House members wrote to the FBI (PDF), pointing out that the president had just signed a reform ending the bulk collection of phone records. "It is highly disturbing," they wrote, "to learn that your agency may be doing just that and more with a secret fleet of aircraft engaged in surveillance missions." They asked for the FBI to identify the legal theory used to justify the flights, the circumstances surrounding them, the technologies on the aircraft, the privacy policy used for data collected, and the civil liberties safeguards that had been put in place. Senator Al Franken has posed ten questions of his own (PDF) to the FBI.
Only one per post!
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Has there ever been a time when the FBI's activities didn't involve being deeply dodgy? From their glorious beginnings as J. Edgar Hoover's personal commie-huntin' team to the present it always seems to be something with these guys.
kinda/sorta goes with the territory.
Seems like congress likes to act all indignant (certain congresscritters) and demand that executive branch agencies answer their questions and defend civil liberties, but in the end nothing ever is done. Even Nancy Pelosi, after being temporarily upset that she was the target of some surveillance (if I recall correctly) fully supports the NSA and their illegal information gathering. I am left to conclude that congress just puts on a good show for the masses while the media is focused, and then when things move on they go back to doing what they were doing before. Both parties.
they dindu nuffin at all...
They seem to ignore a lot, don't they?
With the FBI it's all about the child (porn).
Seriously, does anyone think that anything is going to happen? I mean other than the "White House" giving Comey a medal for keeping the program secret for as long as he did.
Seems like congress likes to act all indignant (certain congresscritters) and demand that executive branch agencies answer their questions and defend civil liberties, but in the end nothing ever is done. Even Nancy Pelosi, after being temporarily upset that she was the target of some surveillance (if I recall correctly) fully supports the NSA and their illegal information gathering. I am left to conclude that congress just puts on a good show for the masses while the media is focused, and then when things move on they go back to doing what they were doing before. Both parties.
Not much will be done, certainly.
Legal authority is pretty obvious--at least it's obvious that it's not constitutionally restricted. No warrant required under existing precedent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Doesn't mean they had a funding grant authorized by Congress for it, though.
Seeing the same video bytes -- which I am not going to watch anyway -- EVERY TIME I scroll down the page.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Mock outrage at what upsets your constituents is part of that 'getting elected' thing. Feinstein did the "how dare they spy on us" outrage, NSA/CIA promised in future not to spy on them, and people like Feinstein understand that these spooks have all this info on her and her family and could certainly find something, so she shuts up.
She can point to her outrage as evidence of her views, but her opponents can't point to the private meetings or the private fears in her head, so she gets to present her views as different from her actions.
Tiny steps, step by step is how dictatorships are built. Loss of privacy first, free speech later, one law for us another for them after that, little step by step changes.
They may not get the answer they want if they ask that question! (Q3 of this request)
Damnit, does anybody in Congress know about this?
If not, then there has been a serious lack of oversight in the committee on groveling.
The beginning was:
"We Didn't Know the FBI Was Creating a Small Surveillance 'Air Force'"
But it continued:
"Those jerks told us it was going to be a big impressive air force! Not a bunch of Cessna's that were rejected from crop dusting!"
"We don't have any idea how the FBI spends its money, but we vote on budgets to fund them."
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
You also don't know the text of that grad treaty bill you're voting on. Why the secrecy? And why don't you care?
What precisely did we expect when the dumb fuckers don't even read the bills before they vote?
Of course it could simply be a lie, like the collusive anti constitutional deniability that congress and the white house have shared since Korea?
-Styopa
It speaks volumes how few people are willing to comment on this subject.
These agencies are not sifting through everyone's personal stuff for jollies. It's fear and intimidation, and used repeatedly as a way to silence opposition and critics. Cut their budget and see all of your personal affairs made public. Defend the person exposed, and your stuff is made public. Make the wrong deals or don't make the right promises, and media will find out who you were fooling around with, or have dick-picks exposed (not claiming that what happened to a certain politician, just an easy example). Are you foolish enough to believe that the IRS targeting certain groups of people is purely coincidence?
Congress does not know where the FBI is spending tax money? What the fuck are they doing on the tax payer dime, because their goddamn job is to know these things. Fire them all and start getting people you trust on ballots, because the career politicians funded by a select few people in the country are not doing the job.
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
What did they expect when they gave them nearly unlimited access to funds?
God bless Edward Snowden. I hope there are hundreds more just like him.
You are welcome on my lawn.
http://www.24af.af.mil/
Time to clean the Augean Stables.
Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number
^ this is the one you should have modded +5 insightful. No, I didn't write it, but it is the *real* truth behind all this.
To put this less passionately, digging up dirt on people results in power. The dirt is a commodity. The most valuable kind, worth leverage, clout, influence, control. From this perspective, setting aside thoughts of morality and malice, it's quite the reasonable thing to do.
Which is another way of saying, a very credible thing to expect. Whatever is "just good business." can be considered increasingly certain at higher scales.
I have not had an issue with NSA doing its spying. The reason is that they have no real power.
However, the FBI is a major part of the DOJ and all Americans should be TERRIFIED of this.
And if anybody believes that CONgress had no knowledge, well, they are just plain fools. Even when I was working on the USA PATRIOT act back in 2005-6, we KNEW that CONgress knew everything that we were up to. Yeah, the GOP claims that they had no knowledge, but the NSA informed them constantly on it.
And now, CONgress claims to not know that FBI was spending 10-100s of millions on aircraft and CONgress was not informed????? Yeah. Right.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Saying you didn't know means little when your response when you do know is to do nothing.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
The FBI was set up specifically so that Congress can plausibly deny the things it does. They gave it a charter with a broad scope, lots of funding, then stuck their heads in the sand so that they don't have to admit to what the FBI does on a regular basis. Now, Homeland Security can say anything/everything is a state secret and not even admit to Congress itself what it's been doing on a regular basis. It's appalling how many people have lied before congress about the things Snowden revealed only to backtrack later and admit they were indeed lies. I'm surprised no one went to jail for lying to congress.
As for the clowns in congress, most work for their corporate and union sponsors, not American citizens. They should have patches on their suits to identify their sponsors - like race car drivers. Good luck voting them out. Their parties gerrymandered their districts to make sure they get voted back in. They also wrote the campaign finance laws. Our "vote for one candidate = a vote against all other candidates" system is at the heart of why we're stuck with a 2 party system. Both parties are bought, so when you go to vote, you basically pick between Kang and Kodos.
http://memecrunch.com/meme/7AQ...
We don't live in a democracy or even a democratic republic -- we're a Plutocracy. Corporations are people, money is both speech and power, and the rich generally control not only 99% of the wealth, but also 99% of the government.
Should have learned from J. Edgar Hoover's shit. But congress members interests are things that make them money.
... for all Congress knows. There are two meanings to the word "oversight" and Congress seems to have picked the wrong one...
Isn't it the job of congress to keep tabs on the government?
This would imply a requirement to stay up to date with what's happening elsewhere between the horsetrading and the fillibusters.
Think what you want of the morality or wisdom of all the spying going on in the USA. The scariest part is that even congress are clueless about it. Whether the FBI, CIA or NSA, they are a law unto themselves. They do what they want with impunity. At least if congress signed off on it you could say that you voted for the guy who signed off on it. But as it is, they are out of control.
Yeah, but WHY IS THAT STILL TRUE? Does Orange County and San Diego truly control the entire state? I guess so, given that if this state was even half as progressive as they like portray themselves, by now, no one would even remember her.
You cannot take him seriously.
Congress has the responsibility to know and has no excuse. members of congress are equally guilty.
The FBI isn't doing anything outside of current regulatory structures. If its legal for the police to fly around with FLIR systems on helicopters and park cars with Stingray cell equipment outside the local gang hangout, what is the FBI doing that is different?
It's up to Congress to keep them accountable for performance. If they think air surveillance is an efficient way of doing business, they should be able to justify that expenditure.
Have gnu, will travel.
Make the wrong deals or don't make the right promises, and media will find out who you were fooling around with, or have dick-picks exposed (not claiming that what happened to a certain politician, just an easy example). Are you foolish enough to believe that the IRS targeting certain groups of people is purely coincidence?
This is what happened to Elliot Spitzer in my opinion. He was aggressively going after Wall Street crime when the revelations about his paid-for love life came about. I'm not saying he wasn't having sex with prostitutes. But come on, lots of powerful men have sex with prostitutes.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
We know where this will end up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helicarrier
Has there ever been a country (or any political unit) that wasn't a plutocracy? Perhaps some are better than others, but I can't think of any government where the rich don't exercise a lot more control than the poor.