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Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

theguardian.com

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Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#41

Post by Theodores »

patrickg_zill wrote: post #29

I can't help but feel that this is fake outrage, given for example, this writeup of a 60 minutes interview ... from the year 2000: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-snoop-confirms-echelon-networ... "America politicians may also have been eavesdropped on, says Margaret Newsham, a woman who worked at Menwith Hill in England, the NSA's largest spy station. She says she was shocked to hear the voice of U.S. Sen. Strom Thurm…

I thought of this too!

This is why the question is such a good one. When 'Snowden's grandmother' tried to out them on exactly this minor detail of spying on a congressman she did not provide any primary first hand evidence, e.g. a tape recording. It was her word against the NSA's. Obviously we believe her, or at least we do now!

So when the NSA say they have never spied on anyone in congress, they will have to carefully craft their lie. I can't wait for it!

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#42

Post by leeoniya »

jorgeortiz85 wrote: post #33
leeoniya wrote: post #4

"...if the NSA has spied, or is the NSA currently spying, on members of Congress or other American elected officials" It depends on your definitions of "has", "spied", "spying", "currently", "elected" and "members". So the answer is, "No".

Read the article. The Senator defines spying very specifically. So specifically that it's already clear the answer is "yes".

> So specifically that it's already clear the answer is "yes".

would you like to put a wager on "yes" being the response he receives?

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#43

Post by ketralnis »

sethbannon wrote: post #12

This is brilliant. This is how we'll get legislation passed reigning in the NSA. Elected officials will wake up and ask "Wait, you mean they're spying on ME?!"

No they won't. They'll just exempt themselves from it. Congress exempts itself from tonnes of laws.

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#44

Post by mey »

ketralnis wrote: post #43
sethbannon wrote: post #12

This is brilliant. This is how we'll get legislation passed reigning in the NSA. Elected officials will wake up and ask "Wait, you mean they're spying on ME?!"

No they won't. They'll just exempt themselves from it. Congress exempts itself from tonnes of laws.

[citation needed]

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#45

Post by frandroid »

sln wrote: post #26
gizmo686 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In fairness, spying of congress (and the president, judges, etc) does seem much more concerning then spying on most citizens, as it would allow them to break the checks on their power that those bodies should provide. In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians.

Yeah but if you're trying to catch criminals the signal to noise is far better with presidents, judges, and congress than with boring, normal citizens.

Hehe, good one.

FTR, the ratio is much lower when trying to catch foreign terrorists. :P

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#46

Post by coldtea »

gizmo686 wrote: post #21
sethbannon wrote: post #12

This is brilliant. This is how we'll get legislation passed reigning in the NSA. Elected officials will wake up and ask "Wait, you mean they're spying on ME?!"

In fairness, spying of congress (and the president, judges, etc) does seem much more concerning then spying on most citizens, as it would allow them to break the checks on their power that those bodies should provide. In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians.

>In fact, one of the largest concerns I have heard about surveleince is that it would allow them to blackmail politicians

Would? That has been standard fair at least since the days of J.E Hoover.

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#48

Post by coldtea »

f_salmon wrote: post #30
gojomo wrote: post #8

Only for training purposes, with recordings promptly destroyed! See from 1995 (!): http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1995-12-12/news/1995346001_... FTA: "We listened to all the calls in and out of Washington," says one former NSA linguist, recalling a class at the Warrenton Training Center, a CIA communications school on a Virginia hilltop. "We'd listen to senators, representatives, government agencies, housewives tal…

Also, for those who have missed it: Obama was being surveilled as well, before being elected: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/06/19/podcast-show-112-... Which means Obama may effectively be a puppet (if you compare his promises and reality, it sure looks like it). And that would then mean that no future President would be able to start limiting the growing corruption, with the NSA in power.

>Which means Obama may effectively be a puppet

Effectively? Nobody gets the backing of a major party for his nomination, donations, etc, without being thorougly screened and vetoed that they'll "do the right thing" to continue supporting several interests (partisan, financial, political, etc).

It's not like parties do all this gerrymandering and political games to then allow some loose canon President to realy change the system.

In that sense, they are all puppets, even without surveillance coming into play.

Re: Senator presses NSA to reveal whether it spies on members of Congress

#49

Post by Artistry121 »

mey wrote: post #44
ketralnis wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No they won't. They'll just exempt themselves from it. Congress exempts itself from tonnes of laws.

[citation needed]

Congress is exempt from insider trading laws and many forms of arrest. A quick google search will reveal this.
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