NYT Report On ‘Significant’ Surveillance Abuses Confirms Progressive Criticisms Of 2008 FISA Compromise
NYT Report On ‘Significant’ Surveillance Abuses Confirms Progressive Criticisms Of 2008 FISA Compromise
Last night, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists James Risen and Eric Lichtblau reported in the New York Times that “the National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year.” According to intelligence officials, the problems grew “out of changes enacted by Congress last July in the law that regulates the government’s wiretapping powers.”
In July 2008, as Congress — including then-Sen. Barack Obama — moved towards approving the re-write of surveillance law, progressives mobilized against the legislation. As Glenn Greenwald points out, many of the concerns held by progressives at the time are proven by the NYT report. Here’s how Greenwald summarized the opposition in June 2008:
The ACLU specifically identifies the ways in which this bill destroys meaningful limits on the President’s power to spy on our international calls and emails. Sen. Russ Feingold condemned the bill on the ground that it “fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding Americans at home” because “the government can still sweep up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards to protect against abuse of this power.” Rep. Rush Holt — who was actually denied time to speak by bill-supporter Silvestre Reyes only to be given time by bill-opponent John Conyers — condemned the bill because it vests the power to decide who are the “bad guys” in the very people who do the spying.
On July 3rd, Obama explained his support for the “improved yet imperfect bill” by saying that as president he would have his Attorney General “conduct a comprehensive review of all our surveillance programs” in order to make further recommendations on protecting civil liberties. According to the Lichtblau and Risen, the “overcollection” of domestic collection was “detected” during a “periodic review” of the NSA’s activities:
As part of a periodic review of the agency’s activities, the department “detected issues that raised concerns,” it said. Justice Department officials then “took comprehensive steps to correct the situation and bring the program into compliance” with the law and court orders, the statement said. It added that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. went to the national security court to seek a renewal of the surveillance program only after new safeguards were put in place.
Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who opposed the 2008 FISA Amendment Act, issued a statement today calling on Congress to “get to work fixing these laws that have eroded the privacy and civil liberties of law-abiding citizens.” Feingold also called on the Obama administration to “declassify certain aspects of how these authorities have been used so that the American people can better understand their scope and impact.”
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RNC money makes people do strange things even forget what they said earlier. We have seen who the real Law Makers are and corruption swings both ways it’s all about how much your paid.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:24 pmOoooo, that’s gotta hurt.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:32 pmWith all of this spying going on you’d think that Osama Bin Laden would’ve been located by now?!
April 16th, 2009 at 2:32 pm‘Significant Surveillance Abuses’
Ya think?
Folks, we’ve been down this road before, in the 60s & 70s.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:34 pmRe-instate FISA, and with STRICT rules, oversight, and REAL penalties with VERY SHARP TEETH in them.
You didn’t have to be a rocket scientist to see this one coming…abuses of power are not limited by laws, especially laws that constantly move the goal posts of acceptable government behavior.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:34 pmPut the fox in charge of the hen house, then be surprised when a hen goes missing? There’s a reason that this cliche exists, and this is another reason why.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:35 pmYet another example of the Right getting it dead wrong!
April 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pmCare to expound on your thanks to the President hp?
April 16th, 2009 at 2:43 pmNothing like a well thought-out statement, eh hp? That’s using yer noodle.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pmThis doesn’t necessarily make me feel any better, but… we told you so.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:48 pmhp Says:
“Thanks, Obama!”
Who did you vote for and what was their stance on the issue?
April 16th, 2009 at 2:49 pmI’m waiting for the wingnuts to blame these “abuses” on President Obama — forgetting how gung-ho they were for full-scale espionage against Americans during the Bush years, pooh-poohing the potential for abuse.
Does anybody remember “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about”?
OK, thank you for allowing me the indulgence of rubbing their noses in it for a second. This is wrong, and needs to be fixed. Period.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:52 pmSo hp, you support the very people that are doing the spying get to decide who the bad guys are. It doesn’t bother you that the gathering of information went way beyond the legal limits.
You support breaking the law. Is that your stance?
April 16th, 2009 at 2:53 pmPower corrupts and absolute, well, you know the rest…
April 16th, 2009 at 2:54 pmhp,
How so?
April 16th, 2009 at 2:55 pmHow does the old saying go? Your saying “That’s off topic” IS off topic?
Not worth a second more of anyone’s time.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:57 pmhp Says
April 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
I was thanking him for his vote. FISA?
____________________________________________________________
As long as you’re doling out thanks, be sure to include EVERY Republican Senator. (It’s true that McCain missed the vote, but he supported the bill.)
Twenty-eight Democrats (and NO Republicans) opposed it.
I’m not defending then-Senator Obama’s vote, which I was critical of. But it’s fair to say he didn’t pass the bill all by himself. Let’s give the credit everywhere it’s due.
April 16th, 2009 at 2:58 pmhp – Hating Prick? Sounds about right.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:04 pmNo, at the time Obama wasn’t a critical vote. But now he’s president, and we’re seeing how his favor of police state tactics is affecting his administration and our government. His Dept. of Justice going to bat for Bushco’s war criminals, to maintain Bushco’s illegal seizures of power, to prevent Bushco’s torture memos from being published, and I strongly suspect pressuring Spanish prosecutors to oppose an investigation and prosecution of Bushco war criminals, Obama’s defense of warrantless surveillance, and whatever else he’s got coming down the pike at us: Obama’s stance on these issues is at best that of a moderate Repug, or more clearly, just another member of the corporatocracy.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:05 pmAnd yes, I voted for him.
HP, more like hapless puppy.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:09 pmhp = Hardly Plausible
April 16th, 2009 at 3:10 pmI agree nooneyouknow. Now that this power is in Obama’s hands he may be rethinking his earlier stance. This does not bode well for america if we stay on the current path.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:11 pmI agree NoOneYouKnow, the President has not gone far enough with these issues as one would like. I would like to know more details about these safeguards. This all may have derived from a Republic administration and initial congressional majority, but we can’t look away from the obvious rolling over of a lot of Democrats on these issues. There needs to be greater understanding and rememberance of post 9/11 politics, because it was ugly and illegal, and at the very least there is some improvement, however small.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:13 pmExactly like the Bush’s Administration, Obama’s let CRIMINALS and CRIMINAL CORPORATIONS walk free…
April 16th, 2009 at 3:17 pmNo retoring America’s moral stand! Go ObaOba, increase the WAR in Afgahnistan! It is now Obama’s WAR. So are the Killings of civilians inside PAKISTAN, they are Obama’s crimes! …and it looks like he likes criminals behaviour, he hasn’t moved one inch towards PROSECUTION OF WAR CRIMINALS.
Obama is a great disapointment… just like Pelosi was!
I’d also add that the GOP’s casual dismissal of this illegal surveillance flies in the face of its own ’small government’ meme/deception. It’s always distressing to see the sheeple conservatives not have any cognitive dissonance about any of this. Maybe people just wanted to feel safe again? To know that America is the only in-charge aggressor, and not anyone else? How quickly people traded in their own ethics for protection from the Repubs and a “war president.”
April 16th, 2009 at 3:17 pmfire _ant_chavis Says:
With all of this spying going on you’d think that Osama Bin Laden would’ve been located by now?!
Osama Bin Laden was a CIA agent and had nothing to do with 9/11, which was an inside job, a false flag operation.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:20 pmRealness, Obama is a War President too! Worse, his military budget surpasses Bush’s while the economy is going down despite his absurd words:’I can see glimpse of recovery’…
April 16th, 2009 at 3:24 pmThe DOW is up 130 points. Highest since Feb. JPM says they are able to pay back the 25b from the TARP fund. World wide financial centers are believing the worst has bottomed out.
Not absurd words, but looking at evidence.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pmOh I completely agree with you about the Presiden’t foreign policy so far (um, but not so much about the 9/11 stuff) It’s completely disappointing. Afghanistan is a mess. But I will say that it depends on how you look at it. There’s the obvious contrast to Bush, which was awful at every turn. There’s movements of diplomacy we haven’t seen in some years, there’s of course the domestic policy decisions that look promising. I would say that from an incrementalist perspective, things are improving. Maybe not in every area, but in a lot. and it’s been months, and there’s a LOT going on in terms of the economy, global issues, etc.
It’s said a million times- grassroots pressure on the President is what’s needed now and for his entire time in office. No one’s job was done in November.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:31 pmI think this new political environment provides a great opportunity to address crucial issues that have been forgotten. The U.S. should be doing way more to address the Millennium Development Goals. The plan to end world hunger has been getting seriously ignored.
$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.
(source: borgenproject.org.)
April 16th, 2009 at 3:32 pmThe NSA has been spying on Murkins, to my certain knowledge, since the late ’60s.
No it’s not in their charter. In fact, its explicitly forbidden.
But it’s not illegal when the President does it…Right?
April 16th, 2009 at 3:46 pmThere’s one big problem with ‘ending world hunger.’
As soon as you’d get close, the population would boom out of control again. In fact, it would happen well before the problem had been dealt with.
So it could never happen, without stringent regulations governing human reproduction: e.g., PRC regs on the number of kids…
Why?
Read Thomas Malthus.
April 16th, 2009 at 3:50 pmDon’t you wish you had a President who had a REAL spine, who stood for principle, even if only once in a while?
Like Evo Morales, of Bolivia, say?
April 16th, 2009 at 3:53 pm
37.tokin librul Says:
There’s one big problem with ‘ending world hunger.’
As soon as you’d get close, the population would boom out of control again. In fact, it would happen well before the problem had been dealt with.
So it could never happen, without stringent regulations governing human reproduction: e.g., PRC regs on the number of kids…
Why?
Read Thomas Malthus.
Or Daniel Quinn: “Ishmael”
April 16th, 2009 at 4:00 pmAnd Obama’s back sliding on his promises and his acceptance and expansion of this kind of thing is why I will not vote for him again. Our country will always have enemies. And if we don’t have our freedoms at home, then we might as well live somewhere else.
Orin Hatch is a Republican. Even when he says this or that is bad, he never fails to vote with his party. The only reason this is even up for talk, is some senators and members of congress wonder what NSA might have heard them say. It is their own privacy not ours.
April 16th, 2009 at 4:00 pmRead Thomas Malthus.
Or Daniel Quinn: “Ishmael”
I think Quinn owes more to Paul Shepard than to Malthus, but they’re complementary sources, imho…
April 16th, 2009 at 4:33 pmTenisci:
April 16th, 2009 at 4:35 pmThat whole Dutch Harbor thing doesn’t add up. I won’t give a penny till old Borgen explains that weirdness…
From the NY Times article:
And in one previously undisclosed episode, the N.S.A. tried to wiretap a member of Congress without a warrant….
The agency believed that the congressman, whose identity could not be determined, was in contact — as part of a Congressional delegation to the Middle East in 2005 or 2006 — with an extremist who had possible terrorist ties and was already under surveillance, the official said. The agency THEN sought to EAVESDROP on the congressman’s conversations, the official said.(the tar baby school of legal jurisprudence)
The official said the plan was ultimately blocked because of CONCERNS from some intelligence officials about using the N.S.A., WITHOUT COURT OVERSIGHT, to spy on a member of Congress.
So…who needs the FISA court, when we have Concerned intelligence officials looking out for our Liberties???
April 16th, 2009 at 4:58 pmSen. Russ Feingold (D-WI), who opposed the 2008 FISA Amendment Act, issued a statement today calling on Congress to “get to work fixing these laws that have eroded the privacy and civil liberties of law-abiding citizens.” Feingold also called on the Obama administration to “declassify certain aspects of how these authorities have been used so that the American people can better understand their scope and impact.”
He don’t speak up often but when he does.
April 16th, 2009 at 6:50 pmA few cosmetic differences, such as the changes in Cuban travel and lifting the Mexico City policy, aside, I don’t see much real difference between Obama and Bush. BHO campaigned like FDR and is governing like GWB.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:04 pmHow many times did the Executive Department violate laws, tell us about it, then later make another confession? It’s a long, sad, sorry pattern.
I realize Obama has been office three whole months and most of this belongs to Bush, but it’s a sad refrain.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:30 amFor those who don’t understand what Surveillance means, then you will never understand why an enemy can not be identified until the target has been monitored. It’s a lawyers trick to slip pass being monitored. You have to tell us what your looking for before you monitor a call. How ridiculous is that. It’s about time these part time American’s especially in the ACLU became full time American’s and took an interest in this country instead of trying to protect those who wants to do harm to American’s. Is that too difficult to understand.
April 17th, 2009 at 12:43 amMaybe Obama needs to keep Bush’s surveillance laws in effect to spy on the repukies and that’s why they’re suddenly up in arms about it. Is it possible that he would like to prosecute Bushco for war crimes but he can’t b/c he needs to protect his own life? Lets face it Bush may be out of power but he still maintains power…lots of it. And these punks think nothing of taking the lives of anyone who gets in their way.
April 17th, 2009 at 1:04 amChapalody Says:
So then the fourth amendment is un-American to you? STOP your blubbering cowardice. Those who would give up freedom for temporary security deserve neither freedom nor security. That is you. You dont DESERVE freedom because you are too much of a coward to risk being free. So chain yourself in your basement and leave MY freedoms alone. I LIKE the fourth amendment. I LIKE being free. You cant WAIT for your chains because you are gutless
April 17th, 2009 at 8:02 pmOK Pat obviously senile dementia has set in. Time to see the nice young men that will need to take care of you soon.burun estetigi rent a car arac kiralama
April 18th, 2009 at 5:17 amsac ekimi