– Britney Spears
Just extend that to the tens of thousands of NSA employees with access to these tools. And if something is technically illegal it doesn’t really matter. It can be made retroactively legal. So you either support it or not on its merits. Personally I think it’s a great idea. It’s been up since what, 2006 or so? Think of all those jobs. We should expand this program so everyone is spying on everyone else and we can fix the economy.
No, it can’t, your assertion to the contrary.
And they aren’t wrong!
And you trust every american President in perpetuity with these powers? And with the more effective snooping new technologies will make available?
Pretty disturbing. I think this part makes a very good point about why this is so dangerous:
I hope that those who think it’s ok that their govt. reads their emails because they have nothing to hide take notice. It’s not just about emails. It’s about the abuse of power and the consequences that can have.
People with nothing to hide should also be fine with a camera in their TV’s as well.
This is abuse of power and it’s the thin edge of the total survelliance wedge.
When this power was introduced in the UK these fears were raised and people swore blind they wouldn’t even begin to dream about considering abusing it.
Who? Little old democratic, liberty loving us? No need to be paranoid.
This is pretty lame. I trust Obama, but I don’t necessarily trust all career civil servants and he doesn’t directly oversee most intelligence personnel. Beyond that, Obama won’t be POTUS for ever. How would you feel if Rick Santorum was snooping through your e-mail for “anti-Christian terror messages”?
I really wish people would stop blaming the US government for things other governments do.
Just Obama. We should definitely do something about the NSA in late 2016
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 provided retroactive immunity to telecos for their cooperation with the govt from 9/11/01 to 1/17/2007. That put an end to those pesky lawsuits. The Supreme Court was cool with it.