The New York Times has reported that the Obama administration has stepped up federal surveillance of law-abiding Americans since taking office: “The National Security Agency intercepted private e-mail messages and phone calls of Americans in recent months on a scale that went beyond the broad legal limits established by Congress last year, government officials said in recent interviews.”

The April 15 news story noted that Justice Department whistleblowers described the scope of the illegal snooping as “significant and systemic,” entailing “millions of calls and e-mail messages” and including an attempt by the NSA to wiretap without a warrant a member of Congress traveling overseas.

The New York Times published the story just days after the Department of Homeland Security declassified a report (pdf) entitled Rightwing Extremism that paints law-abiding but politically conservative Americans and military veterans as potential violent terrorists. (For more on this report, see The New American’s exposé here.)

President Obama claims he will fight in court for the ability to wiretap law-abiding American citizens. The day after the New York Times published its story on the NSA's illegal excesses, Obama publicly stated: “While I believe strongly in transparency and accountability, I also believe that in a dangerous world, the United States must sometimes carry out intelligence operations and protect information that is classified for purposes of national security. I have already fought for that principle in court and will do so again in the future.”

The “principle” Obama was referring to was the Bush policy of eavesdropping on Americans' electronic communications through the NSA without a warrant. Last year Congress outlawed the NSA's warrantless wiretapping of American citizens within the United States (although warrantless searches were already illegal under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution).
 
The Justice Department told the New York Times that it “acknowledged Wednesday night that there had been problems with the NSA surveillance operation” but claimed the illegal surveillance had been fixed. Meanwhile, the NSA issued a blanket denial that it had violated any law, sending the Times a statement that its “intelligence operations, including programs for collection and analysis, are in strict accordance with U.S. laws and regulations.”

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Flu-Bird said:

Big brother is monitoring you It looks like 1984 and BIG BROTHER is comming to monitor everything its kind of like the opening narration to the 60s sci fi series THE OUTER LIMITS in the order of WE,LL CONTROL ALL YOU SEE AND HEAR

April 20, 2009

Zambraneista said:

... here we go again. Just think of the the craziest possible scenarious where we are constantly being pushed to our limits, and being imposed upon, then BAM there it is in the news. Why do we fail as humans and people who obtain power only obtain it because we gave it to them. We, US, have the power. When does this stuff stop, when we us stop it.

April 20, 2009

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Thomas Paine said:

Big Brother on the move It is a race to the finish. The NWO wants to shut down society once and for all, so they can please China leaders, ie: look, we are as ruthless and as oppresive as you. The race is on as the truth about the criminal activity of 911 is spreading. There are all kinds of groups wanting a new investigation. Pilots, Arhitects, Veterans, Doctors, etc. all know that fascism must be exposed before they have a total George Orwellian takeover. At which time, there will be no laws that will stop the elite NWO from doing whatever they want. Stalin will be impressed.

April 21, 2009

gerald said:

Obama's "sovereign immunity" is outrageous! There was a recent podcast on HiSciFi.com by the always wonderful Irma Arkus interviewing EFF spokesperson, and the kind of difference they indicate between Obama the candidate and Obama the President is quite astounding, as are the details of their case. The interview starts 11 minutes in - scroll a bit ahead, and I highly recommend it: http://www.hiscifi.com/audio/ hiscifi_eff_us_govt_sovereign_immunity_wiretapping_plus _sad_sad_world_pirate_bay

April 22, 2009

Beavis said:

... Ok, So I clicked and read the NT Times article and it made no comments about Obama. This is just another example of Right Wing reporting. So Sad! Bush and the republic-oil party started this! Thomas R. Eddlem is a very poor fiction writer!

April 22, 2009

Robert Reynolds said:

Public Corruption Please review more about electronic surveillance http://www.daprocess.com

April 24, 2009 | url