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In preparation for President Obama's speech on surveillance policy today, here are some of the misleading statements he has made about the NSA
In preparation for President Obama's speech on surveillance policy today, here are some of the misleading statements he has made about the NSA
Since the first disclosures based on documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Obama has offered his own defenses of the programs. But not all of the president's claims have stood up to scrutiny. Here are some of the misleading assertions he has made.
1. There have been no abuses.
And I think it's important to note that in all the reviews of this program [Section 215] that have been done, in fact, there have not been actual instances where it's been alleged that the NSA in some ways acted inappropriately in the use of this data ... There had not been evidence and there continues not to be evidence that the particular program had been abused in how it was used. -- Dec. 20, 2013At press conferences in June, August and December, Obama made assurances that two types of bulk surveillance had not been misused. In fact, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has reprimanded the NSA for abuses both in warrantless surveillance targeting people abroad, and in bulk domestic phone records collection.
In 2011, the FISA Court found that for three years, the NSA had been collecting tens of thousands of domestic emails and other communications in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The court ordered the NSA to do more to filter out those communications. In a footnote, Judge John D. Bates also chastised the NSA for repeatedly misleading the court about the extent of its surveillance. In 2009 - weeks after Obama took office - the court concluded the procedures designed to protect the privacy of American phone records had been "so frequently and systemically violated that it can fairly be said that this critical element of the overall ... regime has never functioned effectively."
Comment: So the war hawks just blame Assad for the fact that the type of rocket used in the attack was not on the list of items in Syrian government possession. The most likely answer is that he doesn't have that type of rocket and that is was fired by rebels from rebel held areas, as the evidence appears to point to. This is also what the Russians said all along.