Real Clear Politics
6/10/2013
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: This is an incredibly important question that affects all of us. We have to put it in perspective. I want to bring Richard Haass in but, quickly — I just want an answer, yes or no — isn’t it the case that reviewing of emails or any wiretapping cannot take place without an additional warrant from a judge and a review? I mean, it’s not like there’s haphazard probing into all our personal emails. Can we put this into context so we understand exactly what is going on?
GLENN GREENWALD: Yeah, I’ll put it into context for you. The White House talking points you’re using are completely misleading and false. The whole point of what the Bush administration did when it disregarded and violated the FISA law and when the Congress on a bipartisan basis enacted a new surveillance law in 2008 was to enable the NSA to read emails between people in the United States and people outside of the United States without having first to go to a FISA court and get a warrant. The only time individual warrants are needed is when two people are both inside the United States and are both American citizens. But under that law, the U.S. government and the NSA have the power and exercise the power to listen in on telephone conversations and read emails involving all kinds of American citizens and the Senate has been repeatedly asking for the numbers of how many Americans they’re doing that to. And the NSA keeps saying –and it’s false — they can’t provide those numbers. So those talking points you’re reading from are completely false as anybody who has paid even remote attention –
BRZEZINSKI: Glenn, I’m not reading talking points. Glenn, I’d like to ask a question, is this legal or illegal? Or Richard Haass, can you help me out, since Glenn doesn’t want to answer the question. Is the law being broken here?
GREENWALD: I did answer your question —
BRZEZINSKI: I questioned the law. I question all the issues that this raises. I’m personally concerned as well. I’d like to put this in perspective. Is the law being broken?
Watch the video at Real Clear Politics.
Other videos at the site:
Cavuto: Government Abusing Its Rights By Taking Away Ours
Limbaugh: The Real Danger Is Obama, Not NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden
Judge Napolitano: NSA Leaker Andrew Snowden “An American Hero”
Lt. Col. Ralph Peters: “Bring Back The Death Penalty” For Edward Snowden
Cruz: Obama Administration “Willing To Circumvent Our Constitutional Rights”
Hayden On Surveillance: “We’ve Had Two Very Different Presidents Doing The Same…
Update: Whistleblower’s NSA warning: ‘Just the tip of the iceberg’
The National Security Agency’s collection of phone data from all of Verizon’s U.S. customers is just the “tip of the iceberg,” says a former NSA official who estimates the agency has data on as many as 20 trillion phone calls and emails by U.S. citizens.
William Binney, an award-winning mathematician and noted NSA whistleblower, says the collection dates back to when the super-secret agency began domestic surveillance after the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I believe they’ve been collecting data about all domestic calls since October 2001,” said Mr. Binney, who worked at NSA for more than 30 years. “That’s more than a billion calls a day.”
He called his figures “back of the envelope” estimates, adding that they include emails as well as telephone calls.
Mr. Binney, who left the agency in October 2001, said the data were collected under a highly classified NSA program code-named “Stellar Wind,” which was part of the warrantless domestic wiretapping effort — the Terrorist Surveillance Program — launched on orders from President George W. Bush.
The Terrorist Surveillance Program was revealed by The New York Times in 2005, but officials said it only monitored calls between Americans and suspected terrorists abroad. The Bush administration said it based the program’s legal authority on the president’s powers as commander-in-chief…
Read the whole thing.
Also, Sworn Declaration of Whistleblower William Binney on NSA Domestic Surveillance Capabilities
Update 2: Shockah! Poll: Partisan views of surveillance differ dramatically under Bush & Obama
