Obama Administration Spied on Americans Illegally

[Forty Two]

http://circa.com/politics/barack-obamas ... -americans

The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community

The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.

The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the newly disclosed violations are some of the most serious to ever be documented and strongly call into question the U.S. intelligence community’s ability to police itself and safeguard American’s privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.

“I think what this emphasizes is the shocking lack of oversight of these programs,” said Neema Singh Guliani, the ACLU’s legislative counsel in Washington.

[pErvinalia]

And Democrats think the problem with politics is racist white trash. They seem almost totally unaware of their own role in the upheaval of politics in the US.

[Hermit]

The NSA secretly conducted illegal searches on Americans for years? Well, I never... I never... I'm shocked! Who would have thunk that an organisation comprising 30,000 to 40,000 snoops would do such a thing? What on earth next? The CIA? Any of the other couple of dozen outfits specifically tasked to spy on people without being subject to rigorous supervision?

I note the article starts with "The National Security Agency ... failed to disclose the extent of the problems" That means Obama was left out of the loop until the NSA decided that it had to disclose it. Nevertheless, John Solomon and Sara Carter managed to squeeze his name 5 times into first five quite short paragraphs while running out of space after mentioning the NSA three times. Well done, John and Sara.

[pErvinalia]

Obama certainly should have been aware of the possibility, as this stuff was first leaked a few years ago. The problem the rest of the west has is that they view Obama as some sort of liberal/progressive champion. Sure, he seemed like a nice bloke, but the reality of the policies and foreign actions that he oversaw paints a totally different picture. Some argue the same thing is happening in Canada with J-Boy Trudeau. While he certainly appears far more progressive than Obama, he's still up to some shady shit, including arms deals with Saudi Arabia.

[JimC]

There will never be a progressive leader we can trust until rEv, Hermit and I are elected as a triumvirate bringing Oz into a new dawn...

[Hermit]

There will never be a progressive leader we can trust until rEv, Hermit and I are elected as a triumvirate bringing Oz into a new dawn...

Oz won't like it. Dawn celebrated her 93rd birthday not very long ago.

[JimC]

[rainbow]

The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community

something we didn't know already

[Forty Two]

I couldn't tell, rainbow, that you knew. You never mentioned it. :-)

[Brian Peacock]

http://circa.com/politics/barack-obamas ... -americans

The National Security Agency under former President Barack Obama routinely violated American privacy protections while scouring through overseas intercepts and failed to disclose the extent of the problems until the final days before Donald Trump was elected president last fall, according to once top-secret documents that chronicle some of the most serious constitutional abuses to date by the U.S. intelligence community

The normally supportive court censured administration officials, saying the failure to disclose the extent of the violations earlier amounted to an “institutional lack of candor” and that the improper searches constituted a “very serious Fourth Amendment issue,” according to a recently unsealed court document dated April 26, 2017.

The admitted violations undercut one of the primary defenses that the intelligence community and Obama officials have used in recent weeks to justify their snooping into incidental NSA intercepts about Americans.

The American Civil Liberties Union said the newly disclosed violations are some of the most serious to ever be documented and strongly call into question the U.S. intelligence community’s ability to police itself and safeguard American’s privacy as guaranteed by the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.

“I think what this emphasizes is the shocking lack of oversight of these programs,” said Neema Singh Guliani, the ACLU’s legislative counsel in Washington.

A disingenuous cynic would brand this propaganda from the Trump team's favoured, and most favourable, outlet. You see, if one is going to brand outlets like the Washington Post or NYT as purveyors of progressive propaganda one has to accept reciprocal charges about SBG in return. Either way, an appraisal of the facts and the national political debate is damaged - whether a political organisation strikes a special deal with a mass-media outlet or not.

[Forty Two]

The ACLU - a shill for Donald Trump. LOL

[Brian Peacock]

Whoooosh!