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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.
Spying on active members of Congress is outside of the authority of the executive branch. Unless they had a warrant when they did this, they are doing exactly what Nixon was going to be impeached for.
This is a complicated issue. Indeed, in the best case scenario, NSA's existence should be to let us know when another country is getting ready to go to war. However, lately they've been an increasing threat to domestic civil liberties, judicial process, as well as checks and balances / balance of power between branches of government, tipping the power toward the executive.
That being said, here we have many congress people who seem to care more about what Israel thinks than the people they are supposed to represent. Israel would have us continually going further into debt to gain it just a little more security. It's been tail wag the dog for too long, and our nation needs to get its act together financially, for the reserve system we've been relying on for so long will not last much longer.
If the target of the surveillance is a foreign head of state (Netanyahu), it's not the NSA's fault that US legislators happened to be calling that foreign head of state to get their marching orders.
In fact, members of congress dealing directly with foreign heads of state directly violates the Logan Act, and it would absolutely be appropriate for the NSA to be looking into this. Maybe Pete Hoekstra (R-Tel Aviv) should be answering some questions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
You are welcome on my lawn.
I'm sure the NSA doesn't care about those steamy penis pics you've been sending to Netanyahu. At least, so long as the NSA continues to meet its funding goals.
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
I tend to agree. However, these days things seem to be a little more complicated than that.
There is a Hebrew proverb that goes: A cat burned by boiling water will fear lukewarm ones.
Pres. Obama made a promise not to spy on friendly nations. If we take him to his word (ha!), then we can deduct who he considers his friends and not. It seems like Israel and Turkey are in the later categories, which has now turned into a diplomatic matter.
Another thing compounding this particular case was that the eavesdropping started out as having military strategic nature (making sure Israel does not attack Iran without letting the US know about it), but transitioned into purely political aim. That is decidedly not why the NSA has been formed.
Another thing compounding this discussion is the asymmetry of the situation. While it seems like it is okay for the US to spy on Israel, since Polard, Israel has pledged not to spy on the US. I know the Israeli leadership, as well as the security services, take this pledge very seriously. While I doubt that it is being as fanatically adhered to as official speakers claim, I have no doubt it is a very prominent guideline directing decisions.
Then again, Israel did leak internal details from the Iran negotiations, details that it was not officially exposed to. One has to wonder how those were acquired.
Like I said, this is a complicated scenario.
Shachar
nope you're not the only one.
but israel has a good propaganda system. owns a lot of polticians. and has a built in victim excuse for all of it.
and you can't disagree or you're a nazi or antisemite.
you can really see their online social media efforts on some of the larger sites.
anything negative to israel gets blasted.
anything positive gets the circlejerk of the same users every time.
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.