Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the committee, said he was surprised that the programs had been kept secret for so long.
“Do you think a program of this magnitude gathering information involving a large number of people involved with telephone companies could be indefinitely kept secret from the American people?” Goodlatte asked.
“Well,” ODNI general counsel Robert S. Litt said with a slight smile, “we tried.”
– From a Washington Post article yesterday
The backlash in Congress against the government’s monstrous spy program and the ridiculous notion that a secret court (the FISA court) grants any sort of oversight is growing, and it is a bipartisan effort. More from the Washington Post:
Lawmakers of both parties expressed deep skepticism Wednesday about the government’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone records and threatened not to renew the legislative authority that has been used to sanction a program described as “off the tracks legally.”
“This is unsustainable, it’s outrageous and must be stopped immediately,” said Rep. John Conyers Jr. (Mich.), the highest-ranking Democrat on the panel.
Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) — who sponsored the USA Patriot Act, which ostensibly authorized the collection — warned that the House might not renew Section 215 of the act, a key provision that gives the government its authority.
“You’ve got to change how you operate 215. . . or you’re not going to have it anymore,” Sensenbrenner said.
When the sponsor of the Patriot Act says it’s gone too far, you know you are in totalitarian territory.
Cole said the programs are legal and overseen by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. He also said the programs “achieved the right balance” between protecting Americans’ safety and their privacy.
Remember this is a secret court, the ruling of which are never made public.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), the chairman of the committee, said he was surprised that the programs had been kept secret for so long.
“Do you think a program of this magnitude gathering information involving a large number of people involved with telephone companies could be indefinitely kept secret from the American people?” Goodlatte asked.
“Well,” ODNI general counsel Robert S. Litt said with a slight smile, “we tried.”
Yeah, you sure did.
In Liberty,
Mike
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It is all well and good that some law makers are slowly coming and acting all Casablanca shocked (emphasis on ‘acting’), but let’s keep an eye on that mega Utah facility that is supposedly going online already ahead of schedule. It is collecting something called yottabytes worth of data… a number so large they have to pull these phrases out of Dick Cheney’s prolapsed ass in order to even describe the unprecedented scale of widescale driftnet spying.
Congressman Sensenbrenner is shocked! He’s shocked that he wrote legislation creating massive, unchecked, unconstitutional power and that it somehow seems to have gone somewhere icky. He might even be wondering if the Constitution isn’t only a moral document but also a practical one. Might.
It’s too bad he doesn’t have the honesty and integrity to admit that people like Ron Paul were right when they told him his stupid, emotional reaction to 9-11 was a mistake.
Dog and pony show nothing will happen
Just like the big exposé on congressional insider
Trading that resulted in NOTHING . Barney frank still ripping
Corn futures and pelosi husband sure to be long
JPM calls when there is “EDGE”