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In Latest NSA Spying Scandal, World Learns Obama Lied Again; Congress Furious it Was Spied On
In January 2014, during the scandalous aftermath of Edward Snowden's NSA snooping revelations, one which revealed the US had been spying on its closest allies for years, Obama banned U.S. eavesdropping on leaders of close friends and allies and promised he would begin reining in the vast collection of Americans' phone data in a series of limited reforms.
Below are the key highlights from his January 17, 2014 speech:
Our capabilities help protect not only our nation, but our friends and our allies, as well. But our efforts will only be effective if ordinary citizens in other countries have confidence that the United States respects their privacy, too. And the leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to know what they think about an issue, I’ll pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance. In other words, just as we balance security and privacy at home, our global leadership demands that we balance our security requirements against our need to maintain the trust and cooperation among people and leaders around the world.
The bottom line is that people around the world, regardless of their nationality, should know that the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security, and that we take their privacy concerns into account in our policies and procedures. This applies to foreign leaders as well.
The president lied, and the privacy concerns of "people around the world" have clearly never once been taken into account in Obama's policies and procedures.
Just three days prior, on January 14 2014, Vermont Senator and current Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders had written an email to then NSA Chief Keith Alexander asking if the NSA has or is currently spying "on members of Congress or other American elected officials." The letter went on to define spying as including "gathering metadata on calls made from official or personal phones, content from websites visited or emails sent, or collecting any other data from a third party not made available to the general public in the regular course of business."
The response: the National Security Agency's director, responding to questions from independent Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, says the government is not spying on Congress.... "Nothing NSA does can fairly be characterized as 'spying on members of Congress or other American elected officials." Alexander wrote in the letter, dated Friday and released Tuesday.
The former NSA head also lied.
We know this because in the latest WSJ report on the NSA's spying scandal from this evening, we find that even though Obama announced two years he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state, the spying continues and "behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu."
The spying, or rather counterespionage, was in order to facilitate the US-Iran nuclear negotiations and deal which took place this summer over Netanyahu's firm objection to scuttle any lifting of the Iran embargo (an embargo which Iran had skirted for years by importing billions of dollars worth of gold from Turkey via Dubai).
That in itself would not be quite so scandalous considering the frosty diplomatic relations between the two nations in recent years, if it didn't also involve the direct and indirect spying by the NSA and the executive branch, on members of Congress.
The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.
White House officials believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign. They also recognized that asking for it was politically risky. So, wary of a paper trail stemming from a request, the White House let the NSA decide what to share and what to withhold, officials said. “We didn’t say, ‘Do it,’ ” a senior U.S. official said. “We didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.’ ”
* * *
The NSA reports allowed administration officials to peer inside Israeli efforts to turn Congress against the deal. Mr. Dermer was described as coaching unnamed U.S. organizations—which officials could tell from the context were Jewish-American groups—on lines of argument to use with lawmakers, and Israeli officials were reported pressing lawmakers to oppose the deal.
Which explains why for the past two years the Obama administration, which knew this moment was inevitable, has been maintaining an attitude of abject incompetence, claiming it had no idea anything like this happened. In fact, as the Bezos Post reported in late 2013, "Obama didn’t know about surveillance of U.S.-allied world leaders until summer" of 2013. That too was a lie. Quote the WSJ:
After Mr. Obama’s 2008 presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials gave his national-security team a one-page questionnaire on priorities. Included on the form was a box directing intelligence agencies to focus on “leadership intentions,” a category that relies on electronic spying to monitor world leaders. The NSA was so proficient at monitoring heads of state that it was common for the agency to deliver a visiting leader’s talking points to the president in advance. “Who’s going to look at that box and say, ‘No, I don’t want to know what world leaders are saying,’ ” a former Obama administration official said.
There is much more in the full WSJ article, but here are the salient points: Obama lied, again, and despite profuse promises that the NSA's espionage machinery would be limited, nothing changed. It is safe to assume that nothing has changed to this day despite further lies from the administration to the contrary.
One thing that is different this time, however, from all previous administration lies is that now Congress may have no choice but to retaliate against the executive branch's illegal snooping. Ironically, none other than Former Chairman House Intelligence Committee, Pete Hoekstra, a person who had been most vocal in his support of the NSA's spying on the American people, is most appalled as his recent tweet reveals.
NSA and Obama officials need to be investigated and prosecuted if any truth to WSJ reports. NSA loses all credibility. Scary.
— Pete Hoekstra (@petehoekstra) December 30, 2015
As for the official White House National Security Council, the response is "no comment":
"We are not going to comment on any specific alleged intelligence activities," says @NSCPress in response to @wsj report on surveillance.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) December 30, 2015
This may well be because Obama was on the golf course in Hawaii when the WSJ article hit.
Finally, while all of the above is at this point largely expected if anything, what is surprising is that as the WSJ notes, among the "allies" excluded from the protected list, were "Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of NATO ally Turkey, which allowed the NSA to spy on their communications at the discretion of top officials."
In other words the Obama administration has been fully aware Turkey has been providing not only training, weapons and supplies to ISIS, it is also Turkey, and especially people from Erdogan's own family, who served as the source of financial support for the CIA-created Islamic State, whose only purpose from the beginning was to topple Bashar al Assad.
Actually scratch that: did we say "surprising"? We meant precisely the opposite.
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There are 3 outcomes we can hope for this coming year ..
1) Nuclear war. (courtesy of pissing off Putin too much)
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/12/29/russias-amazing-disguised-defens...
2) Civil war. (courtesy of the DHS)
Watch the TV series Jericho
3) Return to constitutional money and principles. (we can thank the Intel Cowboys for this one.)
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/07/30/the-coming-return-of-the-real-us...
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/12/24/mystery-solved-the-connection-be...
Place your bets ..
So Obamy and the NSA lied to Congress. The entire Congress is in the pocket of Sheldon Adelson.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/12/28/neo-will-the-world-survive-obama...
I'm going to have to put my faith and support behind the Intel Cowboys ..
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/05/11/the-intel-cowboys/
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2014/12/20/very-very-bad-things/
And they do have Trump in their pocket ..
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/11/10/divided-loyalties-inside-the-pen...
They do .. They literally do ..
BTW, on Hoekstra ..
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/12/29/shot-in-the-foot-russia-todays-g...
4) Idiocracy x 1984.
So, these guys lie all of the time, right? They know this shit is going on. They listen to the conversations. They log them and track the corruption. They do all of this shit, without breaking a sweat.
But when a FOIA request comes in, they are all of a sudden compelled to tell the truth?
Really? Who is buying that crap?
Seems to me that someone doesn't think Hillary would be a good President. Cuz, you know she knew this shit was going on.
This will be fun to watch.
J Edna's wildest wet dream. That man had shit on everyone. Same as it ever was
Congress allowed these guys to spy on us all...but what they forgot to consider is that they have WAAAAAY more secrets-I mean real good stuff-than ANY of us peons do...
So Congress, who do you think think the 'watchers' will be watching, now that you given them the power to do so?
Trump and Hillary = increased military spending and continued free reign by the spooks.
Or haven't you guys been paying any attention?
Trump brags about letting the spooks have free reign to do whatever the hell they want.
There's not a choice to opt out.
Jack boot, meet Amercian sheeple face.
Until America uses our intel agencies as intended and hits back "hard" against the islamofascists and their sympathizers they'll continue to b*ttf*ck America and others around the World. Tyrants don't make distinctions for peacediks like yourself who willingly roll over.
"the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don’t threaten our national security"
The obvious answer is rampant paranoia by Obama such that everyone in the world is thought of as a 'threat to national security'!
Hillary's the one who's paranoid. If she gets elected, say goodbye to gun rights and talk radio. Talk radio will be first to go.
The man has a silver tongue. Never seen anything like it. Takes it to a new level.
That's not how they describe his tongue down at the bath house
The much more shocking story would be if a politician told the truth.
FUCK YOU OBUTTHEAD AND YOUR IRANIAN BOSS VALERIE JARRET!
Re Congress Furious It was Spied On...
What a crock of sh!t! LOL!!!
Rather, the AIPAC-bankrolled USSA Knesset is furious that "someone" has been spying on its sponsor ISISrael - and let it be known that it now has "the goods" on these "furious" traitorous scum-bags in the USSA Knesset.
Sure WSJ, go ahead, blame Barry The Bumpkin ;)
Well since NSA has recorded all phone calls, lets get the transcripts for the calls of Silverstein and the rest of the cabal in the time leading up to 9/11. Especially the ones for the Cantor Fitzgerald CEO who just happened to decide to take his daughter to school that day instead of being at his desk at his usual 7am.
The Brits found a huge pedophile ring back in the late 1960's. They didn't bust anyone or rescue the young boys instead they set up surveilance and started blackmailing politicians. Most of the spying has nothing at all to do with state security in any country. It is a means to gain control and always has been.
re The Brits found a huge pedophile ring back in the late 1960's.
The Brits also "found" a huge pedophile in the 1970's...
The Brits also "found" a huge pedophile in the 1980's...
The Brits also "found" a huge pedophile in the 1990's...
The Brits also "found" a huge pedophile in the 2000's...
The Brits also "found" a huge pedophile as recently as this year...
In fact Cameron got his start as the private secretary working for / covering up for (?) arch pedooplhile & Thatcher icon. Leon Brittan.
Preying on the young seems to be a national trait -at least for the "upper crust" - in Britain.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that before 1960 they were there.
So, do the pervs become paedophiles after acquiring the financial means or do they get the financial means by way of their perv pals? Probably both. In either case, there sure are an incredible number of paedos at the top in the Brit world.
The only thing the US .gov isn't lying about is the taking of your tax $$$$
Obomba sure is giving black people a bad name.
Maybe Putin and the Donald can join up against the corruption of the USSA
As long as everyone gets their pork, it will be business, as usual.
The NSA exists to suppress political dissent and little else.
Ha. On what do you base that theory?
I would say based on several established facts.
Spying on the Jews, eh? hehe. not sure if the story is true but to have Jews spied on exclusively to put their criminal operation permanently out of business would be a good investment of tax payer money and a good use of these typically useless gov agencies. Ahhh, imagine how great it would be if there were no Jews in gov, banking or media, all over the world. Surely we'd all be so much better off. They have been a curse on the world.
Rupert Murdoch says hello...do you remember me???
ou my god!!! WTF!!! Putin what have you done!!!?? what?
They are raping our RUB!! Now it's 73,15 RUB for 1 USD. Just 2 days ago it was 70 RUB for 1 USD.
FUUUUUCK!!!!! We are doooooomed with our RUB!!!
“Friends and partners do not spy on each other — that is simply a principle,” delegation head Viviane Reding, vice president of the European Commission, said in an interview Monday."
They try to maintain this even now it has been known they are complicit themselves here in Europa for years?
"The group, which is meeting with diplomatic, trade and other government officials, is warning that the United States must take specific steps to restore confidence or risk scuttling talks on a major transatlantic free-trade pact."
People do not want that whole pact or surveillance, so please stop using it as a bargaining chip, it's not even on the table.
They set up this whole false reality with false choices that are all negative for us, the white peoples of Europa, and then pretend to be operating in it for us.
I don't like EU representatives negotiating in my name. They are not recognized as our leaders.
The ultimate insult to the democracy meme is the belief that in the name of "democracy and freedom" you have the inalienable right as "leaders of free world" to do "social engineering" around the world based on the mantra : Our execptionalism cannot be questioned.
"And there is nobody who has the right to challenge us and drag us in front of the international war crimes tribunal based on irrefutable proof that this social engineering has produced exactly the opposite effect to what was the initial intention declared by the US administration. We are above judgement by others. Its our unquestionable right as the world's compassionate hegemon.
"Our money is the world standard, our Oil monopoly via Saud, our Internet monopoly via Alphabet, Facebook, Amazon and Appple, is our model of excellence and our massive military doctrine is the policeman of the world. We are judge, jury and hangman in world affairs. Its OUR NWO whether you like it or not!"...That sums up the globalist mantra.
Well, there you have it; the country of Jefferson is now the country of George III and Queen Victoria ! Divine Rights !
Fun and games ahead... As Dear Kissinger's cut and paste of Metternich's World Colonial Order --that gave us the Victorian century of Rule Britannia's Industrial age-- in his brilliantly concocted NWO post BW, thanks to ME shuttle diplomacy's oil petrodollar hegemony and China's ping pong wooing, now comes apart; after singing "Rule Pax Americana!" for 40 years of hubristic rampage that culminated in SOviet demise and WTO outsourced globalised neo-feudal morph...just like it did in 1914 for Queen Vicky's legacy.
The neo-Kaiser Wilhem challenge to America's domination now comes from the Putin-China-Iran Asian Silk Road horizon that marks the return of Asia into the world geo-political game.
Pax Americana has spawned, inspite its own best efforts, the pre-1492 reversal of world balance that the loss of Constantinople to the Ottomans produced in the European context.
SOME SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY IN THE MAKING.
"GO East, young man" seems to be the new horizon of neo-Columbian sons!
Unless we have a new Renaissance in the West!
But one thing is sure from this phase of Pax Americana's morph : Neoliberal capitalism, what we call Reaganomics/NWO, based on maximisation of selfish short-term individual wealth to the point where "everything can be bought" leads us to NEO-FEUDALISM and the demise of Republic and Democracy.
Its either "general good" and spreading out the wealth like manure or its vertical social and economic inequality in the world; a return to neo-feudal order and despotism accompanied by unending wars.
The West is at THAT ominous cross-roads once again.
History does rhyme. And we never seem to learn.
And who represent the neo-Medici to fund the neo-Renaissance this time around?
Pete Hoekstra, Intelligence, Moron
Pete Hoekstra: "Spy on them (innocent Americans); do NOT spy on me (guilty career politician)"
re "Congress Furious It Was Spied On...."
In the same way a thief-in-the-night would be "furious" for being caught red-handed on CCTV
Anyway, if our "Right Honorable Public Servants" (cough! cough!) have "nothing to hide" - as they never tire of telling the serfs - what's all the fuss about?
The Neocons and Israel did 911, now the SHIT is starting to make contact with the fan and like any two criminals involved in a murder , and about to be seperated and questioned by the police, they want to know what the other crook is saying about them.
A must watch (9/11 Decade of Deception)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqqelDq4P48
This might be the best video out there proving the farce that was 9/11
Hire an Oreo, you get Oreo results. Not once, but twice.
Stop whining you pitiful bitchez... at least Reggie knows when to take a knee.
The second most peowerful man in the world is a pathological liar.
Spying? Big f'n deal. If congress got what they deserve, it'd a lot worse than spying.
Is there any chance the mainstream media will show outrage? Congress itself spied on by the administration is ten times worse than watergate. And I'll bet you will not read about it any where else in that regard.
"We're all monkeys!" - JG
https://youtu.be/wcztDZ13TLI
sounds like to me no one has any control over the NSA..they gather it all...and just ask you what you want to see.....but they know it all...
Barry knows taqiyya well.
The fucking narrative adminstration. It is one big fucking narrative trying to mold our country into their image and likeness. Fuck them and their storytelling. We are done. Fucking assholes.
Well we should see nothing but praise for these actions by the anti tribers in the peanut gallery here.
But to think that any administration is not going to use information from one of it's spying arms that knows everything about everyone for political purposes is sheer folly and gross ignorance.
John Roberts, anyone? We now know why the Obama administration seemingly gets everything it wants. This pretty much proves that all politicians are compromised however that can be defined and further demonstrates that the Obama administration engages in blackmail however that can be defined.
No way future Presidents will not do the same if there are no meaningful consequences to Obama's precedent setting actions and for all we know this may have started before Obama. But I cannot recall a President before Obama that suddenly seemed to start getting nearly everything he wanted despite Congress and the Senate being in the hands of the opposition party and now we can surmise that NSA reports on the political and personal activities of these people ended up delivered to the Obama administration.
This is exactly why the nation's capitol needs to be moved west to a mountain state for a decade or two. While physical location will not cure everything, it would present the opportunity to set up a spy free zone. All smart phone devices would be banned. And bills would be required to be drafted on typewriters or by pen.
Of course he lied
Hell, as a candidate in 2007/2008 he openly ran against ending the FISA court if elected
why believe anything he says on the topic?
By this time I can't believe anyone in the world thinks they have any privacy.
Good point. My 20 something kids say that there is no expectation of privacy, and that they understand this. The youth have adapted to this by filling the airwaves with meaningless drival, and only will discuss items of real interest through face to face communication. My son in particular, believes that it is all captured, all saved, and all available at any time to those interested. Not just you, but everybody world wide. You put it out on the internet, say it on a phone etc and it is no longer private.
You need to understand that Deep State needs information to make right decision and to feed them to national elites. In many cases, Deep State staff representatives are not directly involved in conversation among national elites, so it has to utilize USA security services/CIA to get access to this information. Obama obviously does not control it. And this is not going to change.
Note, that Deep State became scared of public backlash, so it initiated transatlantic treateas to take over control of key economic controls away from national elites. This is a part of the same ...
Let Peace Prize spend his lame duck year fighting impeachment
Interesting piece on many levels.
On the plus side if, "They hate us for our Freedoms!" , we're doing a heckuva job working that down at a blistering pace.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmujttc0oJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgO_CK8BCtA
The CONgress money can buy!
Well congress doesn't have a problem spying on all of us so fk em. With a big rubber dick.
The proponents of NSA say that if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to worry about. However that is completely untrue because if you are trying to run a campaign against the regime (Hillary), the regime know exactly what you are planning. This is what makes Trump so dangerous. He really doesn't have a political machine and handles everything himself and basically just says what ever occurs in his head. Every other candidate's plans are know to the regime and can be countered.
You really don' think Trump has deep frank conversations with his fellow billionaires? Or that they arent ultimately the "they" that are doing the snooping? Or that at least a digest of the rsults of of NSA snooping doesn't end up in Trumps hands?
NSA exists to get dirt and blackmail pols. Obama used it on many, Roberts, Boehner, Ryan et al
I wonder if he knows, LIARS will not enter the Kigdom of Heaven.( As a SELF proclamimed Christian)
But, since he just plays a Christian on TV, and REALLY is a Muslim, it's ok when used for Allah's purposes, to do anyhing to PROMOTE and decieve the UNBELIEVERS.
Hypocricy everywhere in the US government....now Congress..
Congress: It is fine and noble to espial anyone and everyone.....then it's evil for spying on Congress....
Yeah, right, did you forget to include an anti-spy clause on Congress....Oh, wait, you can't, that will be a hypocricy, double-standard exposed for all to see......
Article 12. of the human rights states that-
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
All governments lie and spy. Google lie and spy for them. Microsoft lie and spy for them. And now even the president lies and spies and he should set an example. I guess it is okay to lie and spy now then.