The word “relevance” has now been officially tortured into a new word that means essentially nothing at all, as the Obama Administration’s “white paper” on surveillance stakes out a position claiming ridiculous levels of power based on the post-“enhanced interrogation” version of the word.
For years, the NSA’s telephone surveillance scheme never needed a public defense, because the public was never supposed to know about it in the first place. The Justice Department, asked to come up with one (which was obviously written long after the fact because it insists within the whitepaper that much of the program is too classified to defend at all), noticed that they have the power to collect things relevant to terror investigations, and decided that would work great if we’re not too picky on the word relevance.
And they’re not too picky, noting that most phone calls by most Americans have literally nothing to do with terrorism, but arguing that if you wad up all the data on all phone calls into a big database some of the calls might conceivably be relevant, and the others would catch relevance like some communicable disease.
It’s a lazy, and not particularly persuasive defense. Essentially it’s like putting a few frames of a bin Laden video into the middle of a South Park marathon and arguing that every single episode shown was “relevant” because bin Laden showed up that one time.
If the analogy sounds ridiculous, it’s because the argument is, because the Justice Department literally focuses their public case on the idea that courts will grant “relevance” to anything adjacent to something really relevant, even if that adjacency was done by the NSA after the fact just for the hell of it. The burden of proof is impossibly weak, but given FISA courts’ role as a rubber-stamp behind a locked door, it’s also entirely plausible that they’re correct about how little it takes to satisfy judges.
Welcome to KafkaTown where everything is irrational and everyone is suspect.
Do American people have the right to vote the next election for whom they want or they absolutely have to vote for democrats or the other warmongering party and not ask any question. Is my question of interests by NSA?
Welkome to 4TH REICH—>>AMERIKA…SIEG HEIL!
The good news is Obama may become a total lame duck in foreign policy matters, outside of lobbing drones at random, for the remainder of his presidency.
This sort of idiotic excusifying is going to continue until meaningful consequences start to fall on the heads of the swine who push it on the public. The surveillance regime has to go – lock, stock, and barrel – and the technical components must be physically destroyed, along with all the data collected. The NSA, as an organization, must be disbanded and the personnel need to face jail time for their crimes against the Constitution. The decision-making and technical personnel of the telecoms and the collaborationist ISPs need to face jail time, regardless of whatever ex-post facto "immunity" they may have been granted. The PATRIOT Act must be repealed, and all of its odious precedents nullified. The law enforcement personnel who used and further abused that already obscene law to carry out unconstitutional activities need to face jail time. The classification system needs to be thoroughly reviewed by people who have no vested interest in that system. The vast majority of the classified documents should never have been classified in the first place, and many others could be declassified to the benefit of figuring out who caused this constitutional catastrophe to happen. What is absolutely evident, however, is that this corrupt state of affairs cannot and will not reform itself. It's high time for the States to organize conventions for a long overdue re-writing of the Constitution. It will be telling, very telling, if the FedGov attempts to declare that illegal.
Good Luck…………………….. P.S. Never forget that the raison d'etre for this security clampdown was to conceal the true provenance of our American Reistag Fire………
Oh, I have absolutely no expectation that anything will happen. Boobus Americanus truly deserves what he's getting.
"…conventions for a long overdue re-writing of the Constitution." There has been a movement to develop an interest in holding a Constitutional Convention for several years. Not much has been accomplished based on just what is heard – there is no meme.
Personally, I agree one is needed. But I have to admit that I would have little confidence that anything constructive would come of it. Just the task of selecting convention delegates is fraught with dangers…I can see the same politicians in office now, whom are part of the problem, becoming the leaders and majority of delegates. And the remainder being party operatives and big-money donors. If you think Congress is dysfunctional, I can only imagine that a CC with these people would be a thousand times worse. If you're thinking that we'll populate the delegates with common people. 1. the Archons won't allow that to happen and 2. The number of Tea Party subversives would be directly proportional to the level of animus and extreme ideas which would guarantee non-consensus.
Bottom line, IMO, is it will never happen with the mindset prevalent in today's society, which is also severely dysfunctional. Nice thought though.
Ever notice how any 'opposition' website has people who constantly push the message that nothing can be changed.
if you actually believe any part of what you just said is possible, then I have land to sell you at the north pole( in the summer months it does include a very large swimming pool too )
The history of place like the Soviet Union and Egypt is that nothing can change … until suddenly it does change. And that none of the people who write on the Internet will see it coming in advance, and will in fact tell you that its impossible to occur. Until suddenly it does.
Change is possible. Step 1 is ignoring the people who say it is not possible.
…and so "relevance" joins "lawful" in the Humpty Dumpty Dictoionary.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less."
"The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master – that's all."
Is a sea change in the offing? Maybe, thanks to Snowden, who should win every award there is. And Manning, a genuine patriot among a bunch of careerist scoundrels. We'll have dictatorship soon unless we manage to discredit and punish our war criminals on both sides of the aisle. Perhaps Obama can explain the Bill of Rights to Bush in their new Guantanamo digs. They make a nice couple.
My only argument is with saying we'll have dictatorship 'soon'.
We already have controlled elections for President and Congress where only banker-approved candidates from the two banker-controlled parties are allowed to effectively campaign and speak to the people. Other candidates can, in some places, get on the ballot, but they are effectively banned from tv and are actually banned from 'debates'.
We already inprison a higher percentage of our citizens than any other country.
We have massive police forces and home, and a military that is far more massive than any actual threat. And we are told at all levels that the massive amount of tax dollars that fund both of these is untouchable and can't be reduced.
We already have intense surveillance of citizens and a government that constantly encourages people into becoming informers. And which blackmails them into doing so if they don't volunteer.
We already have a government that tortures people, violates basic human rights, and which runs secret prisons in other parts of the world.
Thus, it seems far more obvious that we've already had a dictatorship for some time now.
The analogy is good, and it's true the burden of proof is on them, but it doesn't even matter if they could prove it is good, which they of course can't, because we have a fourth amendment to protect us from this.
Unfortunately, the vast and growing surveillance of the US population is coupled with emergency military power that came with the Patriot Act, Posse Comitatus Act repeal, the NDAA and additional emergency governing powers the Pentagon recently grabbed… the US mainland formally became a military Theater of Operations several years ago …
Quelling "civil disorder" and the like were frequently invoked in all these legislative acts and findings… martial law imposed this year following the Boston Bombing was one more step in this direction.
As the economy collapses further into a Depression spiral, civil unrest does become a distinct possibility. That's why total surveillance is necessary to apprehend leaders and agitators. In any case, it is to be expected that another 9/11 terr*r spectacle will be unleash a full blown dictatorial regime.
All the formalities and operational abilities are fully installed and ready for deployment.
We know that another President claimed he had broad powers, HIS NAME WAS NIXON!
Biggest mistake made in American History bar none was President Gerald Ford unconditionally Pardoning Nixon!
It has allowed subsequent Presidents to believe they can do anything, any crime against the American People in the name of the Presidency and believe that they have the ability to be Pardoned by a future President!
Relevance is what the NSA determines it is, which could be anything you do. Ever heard of the slippery slope? Bradley Manning exposed what I consider a war crime on Wikileaks and he is vilified by so called "patriots".
Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Amendment IX
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.