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NSA Cheerleaders Discover Value of Privacy Only When Their Own Is Violated (theintercept.com)
Advocatus Diaboli sends this report from Glen Greenwald:
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the NSA under President Obama targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides for surveillance. In the process, the agency ended up eavesdropping on "the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups" about how to sabotage the Iran Deal. All sorts of people who spent many years cheering for and defending the NSA and its programs of mass surveillance are suddenly indignant now that they know the eavesdropping included them and their American and Israeli friends rather than just ordinary people. The long-time GOP chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and unyielding NSA defender Pete Hoekstra last night was truly indignant to learn of this surveillance.
In January 2014, I [Greenwald] debated Rep. Hoekstra about NSA spying and he could not have been more mocking and dismissive of the privacy concerns I was invoking. "Spying is a matter of fact," he scoffed. As Andrew Krietz, the journalist who covered that debate, reported, Hoekstra "laughs at foreign governments who are shocked they've been spied on because they, too, gather information" — referring to anger from German and Brazilian leaders. As TechDirt noted, "Hoekstra attacked a bill called the RESTORE Act, that would have granted a tiny bit more oversight over situations where (you guessed it) the NSA was collecting information on Americans." But all that, of course, was before Hoekstra knew that he and his Israeli friends were swept up in the spying of which he was so fond.
In January 2014, I [Greenwald] debated Rep. Hoekstra about NSA spying and he could not have been more mocking and dismissive of the privacy concerns I was invoking. "Spying is a matter of fact," he scoffed. As Andrew Krietz, the journalist who covered that debate, reported, Hoekstra "laughs at foreign governments who are shocked they've been spied on because they, too, gather information" — referring to anger from German and Brazilian leaders. As TechDirt noted, "Hoekstra attacked a bill called the RESTORE Act, that would have granted a tiny bit more oversight over situations where (you guessed it) the NSA was collecting information on Americans." But all that, of course, was before Hoekstra knew that he and his Israeli friends were swept up in the spying of which he was so fond.
Dear Rep. Hoekstra,
Here's your Word of the Day:
Hypocrisy (noun) - The practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform.
Sincerely,
The rest of us.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Uhm... no, I just read the article. And 10 other articles which mention the same story. They spied on his conversations with US CONGRESSMEN. On US soil. This isn't grey areas. There is an actual precedent for impeachment proceedings against US President for just that.
These congresscritters only have themselves to blame since they laid the very foundation for this to happen with things like the Patriot Act. I'll shed crocodile tears for the lot of them.
Except that, technically, those congresscritters may have been violating the law themselves by engaging in direct diplomacy with foreign powers, which is a felony (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ).
Of course, members of both parties have violated it in the past, and it largely goes unenforced as no one has actually been prosecuted for it since 1803.
Am I the only one concerned that Israel and the Jewish community have such high reaching influence on our country?
Maybe, just maybe, the influence they have and the power they weild is being used to convince us to fight wars that they benefit from but that cost us ruinously.
No. According to the Supreme Court, only the President is authorized to actually negotiate with foreign leaders. The Senate may advise him and ultimately must approve any proposed treaty, but they may only negotiate it through the President.
Except that, technically, those congresscritters may have been violating the law themselves by engaging in direct diplomacy with foreign powers, which is a felony (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ).
But did you know that Nixon did this while he was running for president (bargaining with South Vietnam), and Lyndon Johnson found out the night before the election, but couldn't reveal it because his source was the NSA, and therefore classified?
Committing a felony, and protecting the felons - we're quite good at that!
When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
FYI, Israel is 17% muslims. They have no issue with muslims, they have issues with people who want to destroy their country.
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
Personally tho. I'm tired of seeing MY TAX MONEY end up going to israel every year. (4 billion this year.) I don't care if we get most of it back when they buy our weapons. It's a giant wasteful corporate handout. And we're not gaining anything useful from the charade.
I agree. especially since "we" don't get it back. Defense contractors get it. So really it's just laundered money for corporate welfare.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)