A few reactions to the story that came to featherlight last night, in no particular order:
(1) Exactly one month ago yesterday, President Obama he admonished Ohio State graduates ‘reject’ ‘cynical’ voices warning against government tyranny.
(2) Exactly two weeks ago, the president delivered a “keynote speech” on changing U.S. counterterrorism policy. He outlined a more restrained and targeted law-and-order-style approach, arguing that the global war on terror was effectively over and large-scale attacks on the homeland were a thing of the past. He talked about reducingscale” threats and why our attitude should adapt accordingly. Thirteen days after this speech Guardian history has dropped, revealing that the federal government has been recording the daily phone records of millions of Verizon customers for (at least) a three-month period, apparently for anti-terrorism purposes. This massive – or even “large-scale” – data interception would be very difficult to justify, even in the face of a serious terrorist threat. It is even more difficult to explain when the president claims that the greatest threats have been significantly neutralized.
(3) Practically that exactly the same practice took place during the Bush administration, as he revealed: USA today in 2006. Many Republicans defended him. Many Democrats angrily condemned this. Remembering Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont: “Are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are affiliated with al-Qaeda? These are tens of millions of Americans who are not suspected of anything… Where does it end? It’s a shame for us that we are so far behind and so willing to put our stamp on everything this administration will do,” he thundered. The federal judge who signed the 2013 FISA order is Reagan appointee Roger Vinson
overturned Obamacare in 2011. The covert action was scheduled to be declassified on April 12, 2038. Question: Did data mining continue uninterrupted? for seven years?
An expert on this aspect of the law said this on Wednesday evening this order appears to be a routine extension of a similar order first issued by the same court in 2006. The expert, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive issues, said the order is routinely renewed every 90 days and is not related to any specific investigation by the FBI or any other agency.
(4) In 2007, when Barack Obama was a righteous senator and presidential candidate trying to liberate America from the clutches of Bush and Cheney’s civil liberties, he said the following:
Key quote: “End national security missives that seek to spy on citizens who are not suspected of committing a crime. No more tracking citizens who do nothing but protest against a badly fought war.” Or maybe… they utilize mobile phones? Senator Obama too opposed immunity from the accusation for telecommunications companies that cooperated in the Bush-era post-9/11 warrantless wiretapping program, which was much more restricted in scope. He ultimately changed his mind when the final vote was taken.
(5) Does anyone believe this network is only available to Verizon customers?
(6) HandleAgain:
The FISA court order shows that this was done at the behest of the FBI on behalf of the NSA. What does the Department of Justice mean? Which means Holder returns to Congress.
— Garance Franke-Ruta (@thegarance) June 6, 2013
Can the White House somehow plausibly argue that the president had no knowledge of this matter? Widespread, secret collection of telephone records of millions of citizens?
(7) The political impact of this disclosure is reinforced by the broader context of the scandal. Alone, Obama’s defenders could probably lean on “Bush started it” and fight it, despite the president’s hypocrisy and broken promises. The real concern for the White House is how the public will receive the story after being dogged all month by negative headlines about the administration’s behavior on other fronts. It builds. There is public trust in the credibility of the administration is already weakening; this won’t lend a hand. The NSA reports fuel a mighty and growing sense among Americans that an overbearing, unaccountable, ever-growing and overpowering federal government is out of control. They are manipulating intelligence to cover up the entire story of a deadly terrorist attack. They target one side of the political spectrum that is the victim of abuse and harassment. They secretly spy on journalists. They spend our money on crazy costly events for themselves and lose revenue. And secretly, day after day, they collect millions of our phone records. Nobody has the answer. Nobody takes responsibility. Nobody knows anything. Nobody is punished. This is toxic.
