NSA head, lawmakers defend surveillance programs

“People who are skeptical of the program have no understanding of what the program is,” U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the intelligence panel, told reporters after the hearing.”

Maybe people have no understanding because it’s a secret program.

Maybe people have every reason to be skeptical. If the government can secretly get a court order to secretly monitor my communications, I imagine they can secretly arrest me and try me and put me in a secret prison.

Power wants more power. It doesn’t matter how noble the reasons for running these programs, they will inevitably be used for evil. Franklin knew what he was talking about.

50 attacks thwarted? Why not make it 500 or 1000? Since you’re lying, why not go big? I don’t believe a word of it. And they don’t have to prove anything because it’s secret. How utterly convenient for maintaining the illegal, intrusive, unconstitutional status quo?

50 attacks thwarted? Why not make it 500 or 1000? Since you’re lying, why not go big? I don’t believe a word of it. And they don’t have to prove anything because it’s secret. How utterly convenient for maintaining the illegal, intrusive, unconstitutional status quo.

A rerun of the McCarthy Era?

Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. — Benjamin Franklin

If you want to know what the NSA is REALLY doing with your life and communications, read
Freedom on the Rocks – Tyranny versus Terrorism:

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/opinion/forum-freedom-on-the-rocks-tyranny-versus-terrorism/article_85f42746-9c81-598c-9e64-0db3ee978191.html

An old woman was walking down the road when she saw a gang of thugs
beating a poisonous snake. She screamed at the thugs and rescued the
snake, taking it back to her home where she nursed it back to health.

One day on their way into town, the woman picked up the snake and he
bit her repeatedly. “Oh God,” she screamed, “I am dying. I am dying!”
She turned to the snake and looked it in the eyes. “I saved your life.
I was your friend. I trusted you. Why did you bite me?”

The snake turned to face her as she drew he final breath and hissed,

“What did you expect? You knew I was a snake when you took me home.”

The comments prior to this one are full
of lies and stupidity, and would bring
great danger to us if they had their
way.

They all are really playing around, Obama claims this, NSA says and does this. In turn they say you have your freedom and we show openness. I just see them asking more and more. Looks much like Total Recall, I hope it doesn´t get to a point where we live in a world like the kindle book I have read called IT Society.

They all are really playing around, Obama claims this, NSA says and does this. In turn they say you have your freedom and we show openness. I just see them asking more and more. Looks much like Total Recall, I hope it doesn´t get to a point where we live in a world like the kindle book I have read called IT Society.

The fact is that the US Government is unresponsive to both the will of the People and to their needs. This is not accidental and will not change.

If you want to reduce Police 24/7/365 surveillance and tracking of you and your family in the USA, cancel your cell phone contracts and either sell or throw away your cell phones and all other wireless devices. This will not eliminate the Big Eye of Big Brother from watching you, but it will reduce it. If this is not enough for you, you must move to another country, become a citizen there and change your name.

Otherwise get used to authorities telling you that everything they do is “for your own good”, just as you were told before you were beaten as a child. All you can do is not willingly cooperate or run.

“…members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee showed little will on Tuesday to pursue significant reforms.”

Members of the House of Representatives show little will to pursue any reforms on anything, significant or otherwise. Why would this situation be any different? It’s why they have a 10% approval rating. Well, that was as of yesterday. It may be lower by now.

You would have to be an utter fool to believe anything the head of a spy agency has to say. I can’t think of anybody who has less credibility just because of their job title alone. And you can be absolutely sure he’s pulling the wool over the eyes of all three branches of government.

General Alexander had no choice but to defend what is indefensible.When you get caught so to speak with your “hands in the cookie jar” what other choice does he have but to go on the offensive; and his secret surveillance program is truly offensive and horrifying in its scale. Isn’t this the country where the expression began called, Let Freedom Ring!

I’m still trying to figure out how they manage to “thwart” all these attacks, yet miss the Boston Bombers.

And forget to update the No-Fly list with the new names of “terrorists” under the Witness Protection Program.
(Oddly, none of these “terrorists” took advantage of that fact to hijack a plane.)

And rigorously pursue whistleblowers like Manning and Snowden yet have no problem with ex-CIA head Panetta violating security rules by giving details of bin Laden raid to movie producers.

But hey! They got Brandon Raub, right? The decorated Marine was sent to a pyschiatric ward for a month for criticising the government and the Federal Reserve on his Facebook page. In other words, exercising the same right he risked his life to defend.

Sure, this makes sense.

Why is the US government defending the continual and blatant violation of the First and Fourth Amendments? Follow the money. MIC contracts are very lucrative. Ask Cheney.

They have deleted so many comments on this article… hahaha. Clean it up Reuters, clean it up for big daddy NSA.

Domestic spy agency accused of….. spying.

AlkalineState..lmao..well said!!! Shocking isn’t it? No only is this program legal..it’s exactly what we need if the U.S. wants to protect our people, our assets and our infrastructure. The NSA could care less about your sexual habits. They are looking for signs of those that would do us harm. Let them do their job.

Hmm…I see a lot of criticism of the NSA’s data mining program. That’s easy. But I don’t see anyone taking on the hard job of suggesting where the line should be drawn. It’s one thing to believe that the NSA has taken data collection too far, but let’s not pretend that there isn’t a need for the job they do. Anyone who suggests that we don’t need them is simply being irresponsible, and making our enemies extremely happy.

It scares me to consider that just over a decade ago there were Americans willing to do just about anything to avoid another terrorist attack, including an unnecessary war that cost hundreds of thousands of people their lives and trillions of dollars, and now all because of a flunky working for a government security contractor deciding to make a big news splash and tells us what we should have already known, suddenly everyone’s up in arms about how our national security is being conducted. It makes us look like a bunch of mindless lemmings.

I suggest we get a much firmer grip on our emotions and approach this more logically and with collectively level heads. Because just as soon as the next serious terrorist attack occurs on US soil, the same people will be raving about what a poor job our government does in keeping us safe. I guarantee it. All it will take is for a group of politicians and some tv/radio talking heads to start on the criticism and it will catch on like wildfire. We can’t continue like this and expect to remain strong. We need to take a collective deep breath and think this through. Most Americans want our national security organizations to utilize as much information as possible, without violating our rights, in order to protect us from our enemies. We just have to decide where to draw the line. So let’s not pretend that there’s suddenly this huge government conspiracy to undermine our Constitution. We expected a major advance of our national security apparatus after 9/11. We demanded it. Have they gone too far? Maybe. But if you think they have, you have a responsibility to determine how far is too far, and also be willing to accept some risk that would come along with the privacy protections you would advocate. As a nation, we all must decide. But nothing that we’ve learned from Snowden is that outlandish. Too much? Perhaps. But not way over the line, not in light of the 9/11 attacks. Let’s just be rational about this for a change.

flashrooster..the line is when they use the data they have collected against honest hard working people. As long as they keep the information confidential and their sole purpose is to thwart terrorist activity I’m good to go. When something in that formula challenges..then I’ll have to rethink it.

It’s interesting that we couldn’t get expanded background checks for gun sales because it was a slippery slope to loss of Constitutional freedom guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment, but we’re rather relaxed about having other Constitutional freedoms imperiled by The Patriot Act.

@xyz2055, I like what you say, but I’m afraid we wouldn’t know it was being used against “honest hard working people” until it’s too late. It may be too late now.

@flashrooster: Find two people in Congress with level heads. Simply put – they just don’t have to be rational anymore. Most of the American people aren’t either.

As this article reflects, we’re being told by Congress in the nicest, most tactful way possible, “The Patriot Act won’t change.”

JL4…don’t forget that the vast majority of those honest hard working people are heavily armed :)…seriously, there’s more spyware on the internet that is already collecting a ton more data on you than the government is. And it is being used to steer you to products you are likely to buy among other things. I see what the NSA is doing as necessary for national security. Those with a reason to fear being scrutinized by the government will scream..I am not one of them. I have nothing to hide.

It is truly staggering reading these comments. So many Americans willing to give up their freedoms and right to self determination out of fear. Without probable cause the government has no right to monitor your actions. Why is this so hard to comprehend? It’s enshrined in the very Constitution of the land, the right to be protected from unjust search and seizure. You know where you apologists would be most safe? In prison. 24 hour surveillance, armed guards watching your every move, people reading your mail and listening to your calls. Yup. You cowards just want to turn all of the USA into a giant Orwellian prison so you can feel ‘safe’. Traitor cowards.

stambo, your new found religion on civil liberties is laudable but laughable. Where have you self-proclaimed constitutionalists been for the past 20 years, when video cameras were being mounted on the dash of every police car in America (212,000 law enforcement vehicles). Probably the same thing my conservative neighbor was doing. Sitting in his living room, cheering on the police in re-runs of “Cops.” For you guys to suddenly be shocked. SHOCKED! by abuse of police powers and invasions of privacy is pretty hard to take seriously. Too little too late.

“There’s something happening here. What it is ain’t exactly clear. There’s a man with a gun over there, telling me I got to beware. * * * Paranoia strikes deep — into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. You step out of line, the man come and take you away. We better stop, hey, what’s that sound, everybody look what’s going down.”

These members of congress are unAmerican and should not be returned to power. These people are one step away from Nazi Germany and they can NEVER be trusted with our privacy.
We must keep a boot on the back of the necks of every so called representative. I’d sooner trust the majority of Americans than I would any group of congressional representatives.
We must arrest these rouge constitution violating Aholes and run them out of our government.