[governance] (Tangential) White House Defends Its Wiretapping Of Millions Of US Citizens

[Louis Pouzin (well)]

Hi,

This insidious spying business started in 2002. It was retroactively
legalized with strong support by both Reps and Dems. The US press seems
pretending it's news. This is just a classical way of installing a
totalitarian regime, step by step, lie by lie.

Louis
- - -

On Thu, Jun 6, 2013 at 4:42 PM, Riaz K Tayob <riaz.tayob at gmail.com> wrote:

>  [Anti-American or anti-Democratic? China makes no bones about its
> political system, but this is done in the name of life, liberty and the
> pursuit of happiness... secret courts, war crime whistle-blowers without
> the audacity of hope...  Paging Franz Kafka, Frans Kafka please pick up the
> white telephones located in the lobby... ]
> White House Defends Its Wiretapping Of Millions Of US Citizens
> [image: Tyler Durden's picture]<http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden>
> Submitted by Tyler Durden <http://www.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden>on 06/06/2013 09:44 -0400
>
>
>
>  Blink and you have likely missed Obama's latest Watergate moment, this
> time following the disclosure that the White House has instructed the NSA
> to collect millions of daily phone records from Verizon (and likely all
> other carriers). What is surprising to us is that this is even news. We
> reported on *just this* in March of 2012 with “We Are This Far From A
> Turnkey Totalitarian State" - Big Brother Goes Live September 2013<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/%E2%80%9Cwe-are-far-turnkey-totalitarian-state-big-brother-goes-live-september-2013>"
> and then again in April 2012 "NSA Whistleblower Speaks Live: "The
> Government Is Lying To You<http://www.zerohedge.com/news/nsa-whistleblower-speaks-live-government-lying-you>"
> using an NSA whistleblower as a source. Still, no matter the distribution
> platform, it is a welcome development for the majority of the population to
> know that the same Stazi tactics so loathed for decades in the fringes of
> the "evil empire" are now a daily occurrence under the "most transparent
> administration in history." This is especially true in the aftermath of the
> recent media scandals involving the soon to be former Attorney General.
>
> So what was the latest largely regurgitated news? Overnight te Guardian's
> Glenn Greenwald reports that the "NSA is collecting phone records of
> millions of Verizon customers daily" following a "top secret court order
> requiring Verizon to hand over all call data shows scale of domestic
> surveillance under Obama."
>
> Some more from the Guardian<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/06/nsa-phone-records-verizon-court-order?CMP=twt_gu>
> :
>
>   The National Security Agency is currently collecting the telephone
> records of millions of US customers of Verizon, one of America's largest
> telecoms providers, under a top secret court order issued in April.
>
>
>
> The order, a copy of which has been obtained by the Guardian, requires
> Verizon on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all
> telephone calls in its systems, both within the US and between the US and
> other countries.
>
>
>
> The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration
> the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected
> indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of
> any wrongdoing.
>
>
>
> The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (Fisa) granted the
> order to the FBI on April 25, giving the government unlimited authority to
> obtain the data for a specified three-month period ending on July 19.
>
>
>
> Under the terms of the blanket order, the numbers of both parties on a
> call are handed over, as is location data, call duration, unique
> identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the
> conversation itself are not covered.
>
>
>
> The disclosure is likely to reignite longstanding debates in the US over
> the proper extent of the government's domestic spying powers.
>
> *No it won't*. Because those who care, have known about this for a long,
> long time. Everyone else... well, they have their soaring 401(k)s to
> comfort them, sprinkled in with a little class warfare to keep things
> "fair", and of course Dancing with the Stars.
>
> Finally, the White House was quick to explain why living in a
> crypto-fascist, totalitarian state is the New Normal: *it's for your own
> good, *you see.
>
> From Reuters<http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/06/us-usa-wiretaps-verizon-idUSBRE95502920130606>
> :
>
>   *The Obama administration on Thursday acknowledged that it is
> collecting a massive amount of telephone records from at least one carrier,
> reopening the debate over privacy even as it defended the practice as
> necessary to protect Americans against attack. *
>
>
>
> The admission comes after the Guardian newspaper published a secret court
> order related to the records of millions of Verizon Communications
> customers on its website on Wednesday.
>
>
>
> A senior administration official said the court order pertains only to
> data such as a telephone number or the length of a call, and not the
> subscribers' identities or the content of the telephone calls.
>
>
>
> Such information is "a critical tool in protecting the nation from
> terrorist threats to the United States," the official said, speaking on the
> condition of not being named.
>
>
>
> "It allows counter terrorism personnel to discover whether known or
> suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be
> engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the
> United States," the official added.
>
>
>
> The revelation raises fresh concerns about President Barack Obama's
> handling of privacy and free speech issues. His administration is already
> under fire for searching Associated Press journalists' calling records and
> the emails of a Fox television reporter as part of its inquiries into
> leaked government information.
>
>
>
> It was not immediately clear whether the practice extends to other
> carriers.
>
> It does. But what is most stunning in all of this is that the benevolent
> rulers who are here to "help us" have not made selling of any security
> illegal and punishable by death. Yet.
>  Average:
> 4.733335
>    Your rating: None Average: 4.7 (15 votes)
>
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