By Steve Rhodes
This is going around:
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“President Barack Obama’s chief defense of his administration’s wide-ranging data-gathering programs Friday: Congress authorized them, with ‘every member’ well aware of the details.
“Not so, say many members of Congress – Democrats and Republicans alike.
“Typically, members of Congress “don’t receive this kind of briefing,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told POLITICO Friday. They wouldn’t have known about the programs unless they were on an intelligence committee, attended special sessions last held in 2011 or specifically asked to be briefed – something they would only know to do if they were clued in by an colleague who was already aware.
“Durbin said he learned about the two programs himself only after requesting a briefing under ‘classified circumstances’ after being urged to do so by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).”
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Durbin throwing Obama under the bus is kind of a big deal.
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Methinks Aaron Schock is calling the wrong person treasonous.
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See also: ProPublica’s Guide To The Best Stories On The Growing Surveillance State.
Including:
“The National Counterterrorism Center was once only allowed to store data on citizens if they were terror suspects or related to an ongoing investigation. Not anymore. The Wall Street Journal details the ‘sea change’ in policy under Obama, that lets the center collect and examine information on any U.S. citizen – whether or not they’re suspected of a crime.”
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Now with both meta and data.
Posted on June 10, 2013