NSA dodges questions about 'spying' on Congress

The NSA has released a statement sidestepping questions about whether it spies on members of Congress. On Friday, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) asked NSA head Keith Alexander if the agency was "spying," or had ever spied, on American Congress members or other elected officials. Today, the NSA provided an equivocal answer, promising that Congress has "the same privacy protections as all US persons. "NSA's authorities to collect signals intelligence data include procedures that protect the privacy of US persons," reads the statement, provided to The Guardian. "Such protections are built into and cut across the entire process. Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all US persons. NSA is fully committed to transparency ...

NSA dodges questions about 'spying' on Congress

In a : we only answer to the banksters at the Fed moment.... the NSA answered Bernie Sanders...

Congress has the same protections as all US citizens...

Really sounds like ....

Why would you think your any different?
......
From Bernie's plus account :
plus.google.com...

The military industrial banking complex seems to now be in such control that they no longer care what individuals may think. In such a situation, it is only their budgets that they care about.... Why do you think that the fight over the sequester is so important?

From the article:

NSA is fully committed to transparency ...

I see that the NSA and Obama have the same speechwriters.

As to them spying on members of congress? They would be stupid not to IMO. I bet they are raking in the extortion money hand over fist with some of the information they have run across while "keeping us safe from terrorists, ourselves, keebler elves, and everything else".

We will have to see which employees from the NSA mysteriously disappear, drown in a dry bathtub, or overdose on baby aspirin in the near future I suppose.

Goose and Gander on this one. If we can't stop them from doing to everyone, than they should do it to EVERYONE. Maybe if they piss off enough of the folks with a little bit of power/influence they will step out against it.

"Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all US persons.
In big bold letters.

Buzzwords. Bzzzz.

"We are not doing anything illegal."

"We respect the constitution."

"We respect privacy."

"We are dedicated to transparency."




Say it enough times and if you don't believe it yourself (or haha you're in on the joke) at least someone else will believe it.

"Shucks Jimmy, I seen the headline I swears I did, it says right here in black and white, they isn't aint wasn't doing nothing wrong they weren't."

"Oh gee, yeah, you're right. But look at this, that guy at the coffee shop is a criminal, he done googled a bad word."

So, next question.. Is the NSA spying on The White House? Furthering its reach and power tendrils of extortion. Who is really steering the ship?

reply to post by bladdersweat


The White House is the FIRST place they bugged...

We will only be able to suppress the surveillance state... never remove it...

we can only though the use of apparatus of internet, electronic communications. they are not so good at intercepting say homing pigeon, and other older world communication and of course face to face in the woods.

What good has the NSA done for this country?

Can anyone give me a good reason or example?


thanks.

Common Good

What good has the NSA done for this country?

Can anyone give me a good reason or example?


thanks.

I'd say that depends on which side of good and evil you stand on I would imagine. A sane person who values their freedoms will not be able to give you any good examples.

A corrupt person bent on destroying what freedoms we have left could probably give you an itemized list of "good" examples.

reply to post by Kangaruex4Ewe


Just like I thought- worthless bunch they are.

We need to get rid of them. They are becoming a pain in our collective asses.

That letter was basically saying "we dont like to spy on everyone, but we do"

What a joke.

Hmmmm...
A supersecret spy agency that is committed to transparency.

???

reply to post by R_Clark


Ya know... this is just insane.

These alphabet agencies are just as bad as the 3 branches of government when it comes to who they answer to.

For an agency to state they are "committed" to being open to congress is the problem. There is no commitment.. its a REQUIREMENT. They exercise oversight, which means the relevant representatives should know what the hell the agencies are doing.

I get the reasons why we need spies etch... I just don't agree with some of the methods they are using.

Question - what specifically grants the NSA the ability to violate federal and state law? What I'm referring to are the states that are dual consent. Meaning all parties directly involved must know they are being recorded for it to be lawful.

How is justice served in secret justice?

coastlinekid
reply to post by bladdersweat

 

The White House is the FIRST place they bugged...

We will only be able to suppress the surveillance state... never remove it...

He's spying on all three branches of government - I think.
When I heard Obama's dictatorial dressing down of the members in attendance of the Supreme Court during his 'state of the union' address I knew then that he was blackmailing them, and as it turned out he sure was. We have Justice Roberts' sudden about face on the ACA as proof that he was spied on and blackmailed - as were all the rest. Sorry all you protectors of the communist takeover of America, but there's no other way to understand Roberts' extremely bizarre behavior regarding that decision. Anyone who would defend these communists is mentally deranged (IMHO).

butcherguy
Hmmmm...
A supersecret spy agency that is committed to transparency.

???

Quoted for truth.

Though I guess at this point they're not even pretending anymore. They're just aiming for maximum PR damage control.

reply to post by R_Clark


A quote from a video game of all place's " they keep track of what everybody says to make sure there going in the right direction they want them to and if not they alter the news and miss info so people do what they want "

Why would this be any different for government officials either here in the U.S. or all over the world as they have proven.

The NSA can say what is needed to deal with questions from who ever and the ones asking the questions have no way of knowing if it is the truth or not tell the next whistle blower.

bladdersweat
So, next question.. Is the NSA spying on The White House? Furthering its reach and power tendrils of extortion. Who is really steering the ship?

That is the serious problem with "dragnet" surveillance, isn't it? It basically puts inordinate power within the hands of a non-democratically elected entity whose motivations, while probably having some altruism (protecting the US) may also be steered by bias, self preservation, funding/legislative preferences and more. Then again, I'd say that we still face that same issue even outside of the NSA's existence. How many senators and representatives use Windows or Google? How many own iPhones? We also need to remember that the case could very well be that there is very, very few actually working within our governments, either through election or appointment, that don't use these things. Mass data collection, either by private or public entity, is probably the most significant threat to democracy that we have because if the NSA has that data, well, they got it through a corporate third party who may have just as much reason to abuse that sort of information as the NSA does.

NSA is fully committed to transparency ...

The government keeps using this word, but I'm not entirely sure they know what it means...

ExoPatriotico

coastlinekid
reply to post by bladdersweat

 

The White House is the FIRST place they bugged...

We will only be able to suppress the surveillance state... never remove it...

He's spying on all three branches of government - I think.
When I heard Obama's dictatorial dressing down of the members in attendance of the Supreme Court during his 'state of the union' address I knew then that he was blackmailing them, and as it turned out he sure was. We have Justice Roberts' sudden about face on the ACA as proof that he was spied on and blackmailed - as were all the rest. Sorry all you protectors of the communist takeover of America, but there's no other way to understand Roberts' extremely bizarre behavior regarding that decision. Anyone who would defend these communists is mentally deranged (IMHO).

edit on 5-1-2014 by ExoPatriotico because: spell

This is funny because Roberts appoints the judges to FISA / NSA. He was spied on by his own appointed people?

They should use there own quotes against them to get a investigation.

www.realclearpolitics.com...

Peter King - "The [Najibullah] Zazi attempted subway attack in 2009 with liquid explosives was stopped, primarily by the NSA."

Now lets look at history of this event.

en.wikipedia.org...

Zazi underwent weapons and explosives training at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008. On September 9, 2009, he drove from his home in Aurora, Colorado, to New York City, intending to detonate explosives on the New York City subway during rush hour as one of three coordinated suicide "martyrdom" bombings.[1][6] Spooked, however, by surveillance by U.S. intelligence, and warned by a local imam that the authorities were inquiring about him, he abruptly flew back to Colorado. He was arrested days later.

He was warned they were looking into him and he returned home. Sounds like there was a leak from the super secret spy agency. We better look into that. Open the books up. We need over site so it does not happen again. And why was he not arrested when he returned from Pakistan? Who was his handler? Who leaked information to a Imam? How did he get explosives?