Congressman Raul Grijalva isn’t happy with the disclosure that the National Security Agency has been sweeping telephone metadata—or records of who calls whom, in plain English. Press release from Grijalva’s office today:
Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva today called the National Security Agency’s overreaching domestic surveillance programs “a serious breach of faith between the federal government and the American people” and called on the administration to curtail and explain the excessive records sweeps documented over the past 48 hours.
“Senator Obama would not have supported this program under President Bush,” Grijalva said. “A secretive intelligence agency gathering millions of phone records and using them as it sees fit is the kind of excess many of us warned about after the Patriot Act became law. Continuing this program indefinitely gives the impression of being under constant siege and needing to know everything at all times to keep us safe, which I find a very troubling view of American security policy.”
Grijalva called for the court decisions approving the program — which is not limited to Verizon Business Networks and did not originate in April of this year, according to multiple reports — to be released so Congress and the public can understand the scope of the effort.
“We’re being assured that this is limited, supervised and no big deal,” Grijalva said. “When we heard the same under President Bush, we weren’t comfortable taking his word for it and moving on. I feel the same today.”
President Barack Obama has indeed said that this is no big deal today, according to Talking Points Memo:
President Barack Obama responded Friday to reports that the National Security Agency is collecting millions of phone records and tapping into data from leading tech companies, pushing back against what he described as “hype.”
Obama said that the revelations in the reports should not have come as a surprise to members of Congress.
“Now the programs that have been discussed over the last couple of days in the press are secret in the sense that they’re classified but they’re not secret in the sense that, when it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed on this program,” Obama said during a press briefing in San Jose, Calif. “With respect to all these programs, the relevant intelligence committees are fully briefed on these programs.”
The President then insisted that the government is not eavesdropping on anyone’s phone calls.
“When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program’s about,” Obama said. “As was indicated, what the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls. They are not looking at peoples’ names and they’re not looking at content. But by sifting through this so-called metadata, they may identify potential leads with respect to folks who may engage in terrorism.”
Among those agreeing with Obama: The Wall Street Journal, which calls the program “legal and necessary.”
Well, another day, another Washington furor. This one is over a National Security Agency phone data monitoring program, but unlike the other White House scandals there seems to be little here that is scandalous. The existence of the program was exposed years ago and such surveillance is a core part of the war on terror, if we can still use that term.
Among those disagreeing: The editorial page of The New York Times:
The administration has now lost all credibility on this issue. Mr. Obama is proving the truism that the executive branch will use any power it is given and very likely abuse it. That is one reason we have long argued that the Patriot Act, enacted in the heat of fear after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by members of Congress who mostly had not even read it, was reckless in its assignment of unnecessary and overbroad surveillance powers.
Jonathan Chait looks at the scrambled politics in the wake of the disclosure; Slate’s William Saletan says people should “stop freaking out”; Marc Ambinder fills in more context.
This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2013.
This is an absolute miscarriage of the american way and down right despicable. If you don’t see that Mr. Obama, than good sir, I take major issue with that fact.
This was being done before Obama took office. I’m not saying that it should be, but there didn’t seem to be near as much backlash when the last guy was in office.
It’s time for legal action and hope that the US Supreme Court will uphold our 4th Amendment right to privacy. Obama’s actions are not only despicable, but outrageous. He is worse than Bush.
I would react vehemently regardless of whom was in office or when. That being said, however, it is no surprise. I had pretty much assumed this would be happening since my first cell phone in 1995
I don’t see how he could be worse than Bush. The administration is still trying to get out of this big “Mud Hole” bush put us in.
Aw, gee, people, don’t get your panties all in a twist.
If you don’t have anything to hide you have nothing to worry about!
Well, unless you know someone or have called someone or have gotten a wrong number call from someone or know someone who knows someone or who also knows someone who may know someone who knows someone who has something to hide…then you could get swept up in an instant digital web of suspicion from the National Security State(tm) — guilty until you can prove your innocence…
But, hey, ANYTHING for “security”, right?
You want to make sure that nothing unexpected could happen to end your immortal lifetime. You ARE immortal, right? You’ll live forever unless some “terrorist” sets off a bomb, right? Oh, you’re not? Then WTF are you doing wasting the country’s last dwindling resources on the Permanent War Economy(tm) and the GWOT(tm)?
Pesky commoners ~ gotta keep an eye on ’em or they get all uppity.
Lower their wages! And make ’em work 4 part-time jobs so they won’t have time to revolt!