I was browsing a bit about this big NSA spying program leak, and I noticed to my amusement that Pres Obama defends it and calls it "totally transparent"... all the while NSA brass is saying that it is top-secret and they want to try the whistle-blower for treason...
So which is it? Transparent, or top-secret?!
There was nothing hidden from the people who were supposed to be overseeing it. US law requires a warrant be issued by a "special court" before accessing this kind of data (who called whom and when, but not the content). This special court is overseen by selected members of Congress, who were obviously not paying attention. The proceedings of this special court are secret. However, it is well-known that it has never simply turned down a warrant request. "National security" is behaving like Godzilla, but there actually is a leash in place, if any Congress on the Select Intelligence Committee had bothered to look at what was being done.
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