This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
The NSA Responds To Bernie Sanders Whether It Spies on Congress
Yesterday, in what we characterized as an episode of a "real life magic-mushroom, banana dictatorship envisioned by George Orwell" gone full retard, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders asked the NSA point blank whether it has "spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials?" Today, via the Bezos Post, we got the answer: "Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," the spokesman said, which thanks to Edward Snowden, we now know for a factor are precisely none (for those still unconvinced, please see: "The Complete Guide To How The NSA Hacked Everything"). "We are reviewing Sen. Sanders’s letter now, and we will continue to work to ensure that all members of Congress, including Sen. Sanders, have information about NSA’s mission, authorities, and programs to fully inform the discharge of their duties." In other words, of course.
More from WaPo:
The answer is telling. We already know that the NSA collects records on virtually every phone call made in the United States. That program was renewed for the 36th time on Friday. If members of Congress are treated no differently than other Americans, then the NSA likely keeps tabs on every call they make as well.
It's a relief to know that Congress doesn't get a special carve-out (they're just like us!). But the egalitarianism of it all will likely be of little comfort to Sanders."
Of course, it is no surprise that the US superspies spy on Congress. After all they spy on everyone. But the bigger question is if the NSA is itself, by implication, above the checks and balances of the US legislative apparatus, just who is in charge of determining the targets of the most powerful spying agency in the history of the world? In other words, who watches the watchmen? And just how is any of this even remotely legal?
»
- 41962 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
As the only self-described, admitted, 'socialist' in congress it is kind of ironic that he would be the one to get so upset, or at least ask the obvious question. What a fricking mess. Where are the tea partiers on this? They should be the ones raising the biggest stink about this if they were in fact concerned with freedom and liberty.
Where are the tea partiers on this?
Following orders from the Koch(sucker) Bros. (who belong to the same "club," as the late, great George Carlin put it, as our soul bro in chief.)
Actually I think you would like real tea partiers.....they're pretty normal people. They don't crap on cop cars or rape the women at the rally....you know.....normal. Some of them bring guns.....but they never shoot anyone.
They just don't like overspending. If the government would stop doing it I'm pretty sure they would just go away.....cause most of them have jobs.
I ask a lot of people I meet who agree on these principles....and none of them seem to know who these Koch guys are.
I was just wondering today if the gov ban on incandescent light bulbs is really about incandescents being too hot for electronic bugs.
Well, it pisses me off. I use them in brooders and to give a little heat in the pumphouse.
These things only "waste" heat in the cooling season. When it's the heating season they give me both light and heat- the heat AIN'T wasted! So, they had to get me to buy mercury-laden CFLs, only to then be "surpassed" by LEDs (cover-up to the mercury issue), which, aren't more efficient (simple lumens to watts makes that clear; they're close, but they're NOT more efficient [except, well, that mercury issue]).
Bla Bla Bla. We know all this already.
Obviously congress and all those essential federal govvie employees deserve and exemption from NSA scrutiny. As does any union employee, any MSM employee, and the pope.
The NSA needs to be liquidated.
The data centers destroyed.
The Congress replaced.
The President impeached and removed.
Who will initiate these acts?
And what the hell does "... all US *persons* " mean?
citizens + noncitizens = anybody within US borders unless they are somewhere else on Earth.
Basically everybody , but Keith Alexander, NSA czar and the man with 2 first names.
In federal law, "persons" refer to corporations, joint ventures, and partnerships......as opposed to "citizens" who have "unalienable" rights given by God.
But, now, "citizens" have no "standing" to challenge the unconstitutional activity of this evil monstrosity known as the U.S. Government in the courts of the land. The States have become cowardly minions of The Beast.
The Behemoth must be defunded and dismantled.......Secession.
Indeed:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/01/kirkpatrick-sale/devolution-dissoluti...
"The NSA needs to be liquidated."
The USA needs to be liquidated.
There, fixed it for ya.
The NSA is a rogue agency that needs to be shut down....IMMEDIATELY. No oversight, no accountability, no "off" switch....just people making this shit up as they go. It needs to stop......NOW.
Here's how to do it:
The NSA has a $7.5 billion budget. Have Congress slash their budget every year, moving forward. Slash it to $5 billion in 2015, $2 billion in 2016, $500 million in 2017, and $100 million in 2018, etc.
Within a few years, they won't even be able to pay their power bill anymore. This is the great, legal, and time tested strategy that the GOP has perfected over time.
Just defund it and watch it shrivel away.
dark revenue, how much do they make as a contingency?
.
He knows the real issue, he knows the things which must not be said - and he is not afraid to say them. He knows the one dangerous, fatally dangerous weapon. He is our deadliest adversary.
"Who?" asked Lawson.
Dr. Ferris hesitated, shrugged and answered, "The guiltless man."
Lawson stared blankly. "What do you mean and whom are you talking about?"
James Taggart smiled.
"I mean that there is no way to disarm any man," said Dr. Ferris, "except through guilt. Through that which he himself has accepted as guilt. If a man has ever stolen a dime, you can impose on him the punishment intended for a bank robber and he will take it. He'll bear any form of misery, he'll feel that he deserves no better. If there's not enough guilt in the world, we must create it. If we teach a man that it's evil to look at the spring flowers and he believes us and then does it - we'll be able to do whatever we please with him. He won't defend himself. He won't feel he's worth it. He won't fight. But save us from the man who lives up to his own standards. Save us from the man of clear conscience. He's the man who'll beat us.
http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Taxes/JohnGalt/Excerpt4.htm
Atlas Shrugged
I've said it before and I'll say it again...FUCK THE NSA!
posted in incorrect position........removed
The NS@ now owns Congress, which is a constitutional crisis.
A little late some +60 years ago the NSA/CIA got a permanent blank-check, and now they rule the world,
Soon USD will become SDR under the IMF, so the nasty FED will go away, and the FIAT will be controlled by the NSA/IMF/CIA, ... hope everyone is happy you got what you wanted, ... no more bad FED.
**
NSA/CIA controls all, see's all, and KNOWS' all, and not just the USA but the entire fucking world,
Anybody that thinks this kind of POWER will walk away from 3 generations of WORK-EFFORT is a fucking IDIOT.
ALEXANDER and TEAM built the NSA for their grandchildrens trust-fund.
There's a new elite a secret, unelected team of warriors that have never seen battle, but they got the best brains and technology on the planet.
This thing has been +100 years in the making, call it FED 2.0 if you will, forget Jekyll Island that's old shit, the FIAT 'SDR' will allow the USA to control the world for the next 500 years.
You all have to understand that nobody wants this job, 'reserve currency', the CHINESE don't want it, the Russians don't want it, the EURO folk don't want it, that only leaves the USA as the BULLY of self choice.
One large EMP next to their data servers and computers would do the ttick..
"... who watches the watchmen?"
WRONG QUESTION! This legitimizes the spying role of the state as long as whatever they do is made 'legal'...
The correct question is..."Why are there watchmen at all?"
Stalin has spoken!
Seeing all these shit about the NSA it begins to make sense why Snowden risked it all to blow the whistle.
Snowden Speaks Out!
In the first MSM interview ever given by Snowden he said
"If I have your cell phone number, I can listen to you, and every conversation you have ever had"
"If you give me the presidents phone number, I can listen the president"
"Nobody is exempt universally who we can listen too, nobody"
There you have it by Snowden from day one, and now I ask, exactly who is NOT being spied on?
That is precisely the point of the phrase. "Who watches the watchmen?" it is meant to point out the insanity and ineptness of such a system.
It emphasises that corruption is inherent in every human process and that we cannot design perfect systems for imperfect beings.
Society is a veneer of purpose over a framework of chaos, rules and laws give the illusion of control and harmony, while the looting and destruction continues unhindered and unsuspected by those who beleive in the "dream" of a functioning society.
Their are no watchmen and no one is watching - they are all participating in the looting. There are only two things in their universe Power and Money, and the system is designed to give them both in unmeasurable quantities.
the system works, for those who designed it.
Train of abuses.
Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons
That doesn't vaguely have anything to do with the question which was asked.
If the 1st response is a non-answer and it takes a 2nd response to answer Bernie's question, then "yes" they have spied on Congress. The NSA Surveillance program was not created to spy on or catch criminals or terrorists. It was created to monitor and spy on the American people.
llusion of Democracy today.
People sponsored by the rich, make false promises to the masses to get elected. Distribute national wealth amongst themselves and their sponsors (Industrialists) and when that is not enough borrow money from rest of the world and continue the distribution process. The borrowed money has to be paid back by taxing the masses keeping in mind that tax rules are made such that the politicians and their sponsors pay minimum or no taxes.
End of political tenure, rinse and repeat till the whole system breaks down and the world wealth is cornered by a minuscule of the population.
Having deprived a majority of the population of their wealth and the means to earn a living, the politicians need to tap into the communciations of the citizens as well as unlimited military access to assess and suppress if any signs of revolt is underway by the victims of their crimes.
www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article40231.html
Get a job then you'll understand
Once you go after rich folks through legislation, bail-ins, or taxation your economy collapses. You take away the ability to move up by instituting these MArxists/Communist ideals or some union BS then you destroy the economy.
Ideas and hard work which differentiates the drones from the queens and kings is what drives an economy not redistribution or communism. risk is rewarded not union jobs.
Go stand at the Brandenbuirg gate to truly get it.
Marxists R Us is a dead notion
you must not be a Groucho fan ! He is the only marxist in town !
He has comrades, Harpo and Chico come to mind. Gummo is missing in action.
At least when the marxists robbed you it was obvious when Chico shaked Harpo's hand and an entire tea set would fall out of his sleeve.
FORE!!!!!
Sir that Sanders dick asked "the question" what should we do?
Fuck off I'm busy..
Excellent - but I think you mean 'MULLIGAN!!!'
How hard is it it have an app to alert user that their info is or has been downloaded, when and where it occurred? It seems to me with all the "smart" technology around a flashing warning on the device would be simple. It may not block the downloading or tracking but start alerting all of us as to how often, and where it's occurring. It would be useful to find out what cities, businesses and other entities are tracking people. I always wondered why Easy Pass eliminated the beep on their transponder notifying the driver that they had paid their toll. Why not a transponder that beeps every time our phones or IPass has been accessed?
First, someone has to develop software to detect stuff like this (and they will). Apple and Microsoft made it easy for the NSA to go through the backdoor without detection.
Worse, most of it goes on at the server level which you have no way of knowing if it is intercepted
It is NOT TRIVIAl to accomplish this and much of data is freely given by the openess of your apps like MS office and Quickbooks etc.
Many users give away their entire lifes on facebook and linkedin providing free datamining information directly to the NSA and others.
Many advertising apps accrue data about which sites a user frequents and in what order, for how long etc, this information is sold to other advertisers and certainly the NSA either buys it or steals it.
Computers are very porous and poor at protecting data by design, Microsoft includes NSA Keys in the registry of every copy of windows.
The NSA has spent trillions to not only tap your computer, the websites your computer and you visit, but also the networks upon which the data travels and the hardware used to create the networks.
There is no single point you can block to stop the surviellance. it is ubiquitous and constant and has been going on for decades.
See Bamfords books on the NSA to see that it started in the 1920's with intecepts of all cables and telegrams through NYC.
You can't stop the spying with an app.
I would think congress to be the prerfered target of the NSA. Dig up dirt on congress =blackmail congress= rule the world. I really don't they are very interested in me.
They are interested in all of us, it is just whose head is sticking up the furthest in their giant whack-a-mole game that gets smacked first. Nothing to see here... move along
When the police state tells its Elected bosses : you are no longer DE FACTO our Bosses.
NSA Doesn't Deny That It's Spying On Congress - Business Insider
We are now in the scenario : Congressional VICE holding on to the arm of Statist/Private oligarchy run CRIME.
US contemporary, financially gridlocked and Militarily deadlocked (for the time being) history, rhymes with post Napoleon France in mad Restoration dystopia.
Legal? LOL!! They keep what they can legal to avoid all the BS but if it's something that they can benefit greatly from then screw the law. And who knows after all the bullshit they've signed since 9-11 it very well may be legal. At least in their eyes.
Legal? Why sure...they just waived that law.
This evil, unconstitutional, monstrosity east of the Potomac River is what we get when we let the feds determine the limits of their own powers.
State governments have been corrupterd and cowed by the threat of withholding of federal fiat, if they don't play ball with the extornists in D.C.
Repeal of the 17th amendment, and let the State legislators elect their own senators, with powers of recall, and congressional term limits of a cumulative 6 years, for BOTH houses of the Congress, would help to solve some of the problems. We really need to get rid of the lifetime career criminals that populate the Congress.
NSA is not listening to Amerikans in real time...
We store it and listen to it a nanosecond later...
"Members of Congress have the same privacy protections as all U.S. persons," is not an answer, it is an evasive and deceptive statement...
Put these motherfuckers on TRIAL and send them to PRISON..
we need ACCOUNTABILITY... TOP TO BOTTOM
obama is looking and acting more and more like the sandy hook wackjob... what drugs is he on???????
As much as the leftist do not want to admit it, all roads leftist lead to a repressive regime - for our own good of course.
Poor Bernie will go to his grave with his head up his ass still asking Pelosi if it's OK to speak.
I have to tell you. We all should be trembling at a couple thousand computer science degree'd 150 lbs techno nerds that write code. They can tell you what porn you watch and where you made your last Bed Bath and Beyond purchase. You should be downloading in your shorts at this immense power they hold! KNEEL BEFORE CLAUDE!!!!!!!
Must read (see) from NC
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/01/jacob-appelbaum-30c3-protect-infe...
Like jacob says, the people in government who are responsible for the NSA, have no idea what they are up to. This is no excuse, but, they do not understand the technical and engineering aspects of what the NSA is doing, and the constitutional implcations. And they are reluctant to admit their ignorance.
Does the NSA keep hungry/wild dogs?
Only Robot DOgs, Google builds them for them. Don't you read the news?
How did Obama win the 2012 election?
Clearly Romney failed to get out the vote, but so did Obama.
It sure helped Obama that he had the NSA tap the phones of Romney, his staff, and repubs leadership, plus reading all their email. Did you notice you Obama's campaign outmaneuvered Romney at every turn? Like they knew what Romney was going to say and do before it happened.
DIEBOLD BITCHEZ
Obama won the 2012 electionbecause he ran against Romney. ONe was an obvious dick while the other was a closet dick.
So, basically 'yeah, we spy on you mother fuckers!'
“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies.” – Thomas Jefferson
History records that the money changers have used every form of abuse, intrigue, deceit, and violent means possible to maintain their control over governments by controlling money and its issuance. -James Madison
etc, etc
http://www.themoneymasters.com/the-money-masters/famous-quotations-on-banking/
So, Madison opposed the 2nd bank of the US prior to the war of 1812, then changed his mind. Will we ever be free of the money changers who control the UK?
Now lets think where Bitcoin came from? China bans it - FED not so much so far - is it NSA mapping of all accounts after people have created all their profiles on Facebook?
After The Crash: The Future of Bitcoin and Math Based Digital Currencies
The video in the beginning of this discussion is the great explanation of the Bitcoin. And history of Crypto-currencies development is nothing less than fascinating. But there is the progress and there is an idea to get rich overnight. These are too very different things. We have the feeling that this entry will be at the right timing again. There is always another crash coming to Bitcoin. It is not the question of the technological advance presented by Bitcoin, but it is the nature of its created Bubble. After our last entry Bitcoin has recovered from low of 2011 to the 4742 at BTCChina. Now another shake out could be coming - the volume is going down dramatically as Bitcoin price is moving up. By the end of January China's ban on currency withdrawal will be in place. You can make your call when the next wave of selling will begin. It is quite interesting that Gold price is moving strongly up last few days with the new money being allocated to Gold. China encourages its citizens to accumulate gold and bans Bitcoin for its financial institutions. Will 2014 become the year of Great Rotation from Bubbles and into the real assets? http://sufiy.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/after-crash-future-of-bitcoin-and-ma...
As comedy these guys are pure gold. I have a Clapper clip too.
"(Clapper) was surprised and distressed when informed he may have given misleading information to congress inadvertantly"
You can't make this shit up. No one does comedy like the NSA
Well, maybe congress.
Well, if it wasn't already, the gauntlet is pretty much thrown down now. Not that anything will come of it, or that we didn't already know, but the NSA has now confirmed that they're spying on everybody. I was at a very impressionable age (around 10) when Watergate was going down, and my family had been active in anti-war stuff, so I grew up talking to the plainclothes spies who sat in the car outside our house, and I remember the first times I used a phone that wasn't staticy, echoey and obviously tapped. So none of this has ever come as any surprise to me, and I have always lived my life as one would in feudal times, knowing at any moment the aristocrats might break you down and take everything from you including your sanity or life, for no better reason than they felt like it. And I've always realized there would be those who go along with this, thinking somehow their loyalty will be rewarded or at least that it would be more comfortable for them to be on the side of power.
My consolation has always been that feudalism always collapses.
We know who runs the government. President Obama and general Alexander. And so it will be confirmed in the very near future!
hedgemastermb.blogspot.com
They should that told the truth and knocked Bernie Sanders off his pedestal. How about something like this: "We are J Edgar Hoover. We know everything about you and all members of Congress - and all Executive Branch officials as well. We watch you guys like a hawk watches his prey. We know about every crime you ever committed, every whore you fucked, and every time you gamed the system for personal gain. We know your Family's foibles, and the crimes they committed too. As long as you do as we say, nothing bad will come out. If you cross us we will destroy you. Law Enforcement will learn of your misdeeds and use the technique of parallel construction to build an airtight case against you. You cannot win against us. Do not even try."
"And just how is any of this even remotely legal?"
By secret interpretation.
Usually, Congress has more 'rights' and 'protections' than ordinary citizens, same with their patrons, the 1%, which Hoover look out for as well. Why would this practice change? If anything, it only increases as paranoia sets in.
Of course, the CIA, who receives the cream of the NSA crop and where the Snowman worked just before contracting his services to the NSA, is left in the silent shadows just pulling the strings for their masters, same as all the other alphabet soup agencies we call a government.