Publicly the Obama Administration continues to insist that there is nothing untoward about the massive NSA surveillance schemes, and that every bit of it is absolutely vital to national security.
Privately, however, the administration sees the writing on the wall. Public outrage at the surveillance is already trickling into Congressional votes, with Justin Amash (R – MI) nearly getting an amendment to defund NSA surveillance put into the military spending bill. Sooner or later, the NSA’s wings will be clipped.
Officials are gearing up for the day when the NSA schemes, uncovered by whistleblower Edward Snowden, will have some actual limitations associated with them, and are cozying up to some in Congress trying to keep the juiciest of the powers intact.
And even before that day of reckoning comes in Congress, some of the most obscene excesses are already being trimmed back a bit, with the Justice Department finally admitting in a filing this week that if they intend to use NSA surveillance against someone in court they would have to tell the defendants about it.
That should be obvious, as that’s how pre-trial disclosure has always worked. The Justice Department had previously argued that disclosing information about the evidence to be used against detainees would threaten the secret surveillance schemes.
Analysts familiar with the situation say that the courts probably would’ve eventually shot down the Justice Department’s old position, which it now claims was “never the government’s position” to begin with, though they say without the Snowden leaks it could’ve been quite some time before the government stepped back from that stance. Either way, the government is trying to get out of doing so in the current case by promising not to use that evidence.
Look people: we said it long time ago when Bush ordered no journalists participtiation in Iraq war accept ones that are government rutstworthy belonging to CNN, ABC =American Brain Control, NBC =national barin control and others alike, that was the beginning to limit the journalists rights to report the USA militarism war brutality in Iraq, now the very same trend is developed to its second phase which is no freedom of journalism and in top of that the surveillance all over the world.
Murdoch the owner of few TV broadcasting and news paperers did the same thing few years back in England hacking into politicians and others cell phone calls and nothing done by the British government, no prosecution and etc. few "journalists" whom were the rughtbhand of Murdoch have lost their job.
Bradley Maning prosecution is the government seriouce warning to every man and women whom are after the truth telling which indicates that: this is the beginning of a new era of Neo fascism forming itself for another time and more seriouce and consequences for entire societies all over the world and they have their surveliencd, police state and militarism to prove it.
Good. Now we need to pardon Snowden. This is not up to Obomber. It's up to the people of the country.
"Either way, the government is trying to get out of doing so in the current case by promising not to use that evidence."
Since when has anyone accorded any credence to "government promises?"
The only way to get a government to do something is to control it and to control the members of Congress who sell us out – and they are now like a horse with the bit between its teeth… completely out of control.
It's not the hand that is holding the sugar one needs to watch, it's the one holding the knife behind their back. The USG has shown little evidence that it will ever willingly give up power it has taken. When Congress found a backbone and defunded, and supposedly killed TIA (Poindexter's Total Information Awareness circa 2003), the USG just moved everything under the NSA umbrella where things, like budget line items, are super-duper secret and therefore out of view from even most of Congress. It's resurrection was exposed in Feb. 2012 by Jim Bamford when plans to build the Utah facilities were leaked. Evidently the same Congresscritters who killed TIA were no longer interested in protecting American citizens from spying from within. But, thanks to Edward Snowden, those within Congress who didn't know, now do, and those who knew but were read on couldn't plead ignorance anymore – at least about that issue.
So, don't think the USG isn't going to try and find another hidey-hole to put this program.
"Either way, the government is trying to get out of doing so in the current case by promising not to use that evidence."
Since when has anyone accorded any credence to "government promises?"
The only way to get a government to do something is to control it and to control the members of Congress who sell us out…they ae niow like a horse with the bit between its teeth…completely out of contol after robbing the bank.
Government? What government. What a f joke–
obama… like g bush…. is going down as one rotten apple…