Featured Obama Admin Grabs Millions of Verizon Phone Records

I am not sure why there is excitement about this at the moment. NSA has been monitoring phone calls for years and years. This isn't new with Obama. This is business as normal. How do you think they become aware of terrorist plots? When I was going back and forth to China in the '80's and '90's I was absolutely sure that any call I made to the university or friends there was recorded and I did not mind at all. Technology has advanced, computers have become faster and more messages can be checked for
"code words". Verizon is doing it under a court order, so it is legal.

As conservatives like to say on other issues, "If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to worry about." Well conservatives, you scream about stopping terrorists ... do you really mean it?

I do not see this as more intrusive than being checked every time I go the airport and go through a security check.

 

So Bush did right. :thumbs:

 

Right or wrong it started long before Bush. The NSA was founded in 1949.

So this is not new. But Obama haters will blame Obama for anything, evening something that began in 1949 ... even something that they would support and defend if a Republican was in office. :laugh:

 

I read the OP, I read the article you referenced as well as several others.

Do you have something to hide?

Do I really care if they monitor in any way my phone calls? No. I have nothing to hide.

And as I said, court order or not this type of thing has been going on for a long time.

You failed to mention Bush's program using NSA for mass surveillance, but then Bush is your hero. If you did not post every negative thing you read about Obama you might have a bit of credibility. But you do post all good and nonsense, mainly nonsense and thus your posts are like the boy who cried wolf ... except you cry wolf several times a day. <YAWN>

Oh, and remember under the Patriot Act you can be arrested and held indefinitely without being told what you are charged with and there is no requirement to let you family know where you are or why. That seems much more frightening that monitoring phone calls.

Indefinite detention - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indefinite_detention‎
In recent years, governments have indefinitely held those suspected to be involved ... indefinite detention without trial for 2 years and further extension as needed. ... USA PATRIOT act permits indefinite detention of immigrants; one of the most ...
‎Views - ‎Australia - ‎See also - ‎References
[PDF]
12. USA PATRIOT Act and Domestic Detention Policy - Cato Institute
www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-12.pdf‎
tighten the PATRIOT Act's requirements for advance judicial approval and ..... away, detained indefinitely without charges, denied legal counsel, and prevented ...
Jose Padilla: No Charges and No Trial, Just Jail | Cato Institute
www.cato.org/publications/.../jose-padilla-no-charges-no-trial-just-jail‎
Ordinarily, U.S. citizens cannot be detained without charge. ... Yes, Congress enacted the PATRIOT Act, which says that non-citizens suspected of terrorism can ...
The USA Patriot Act - Third World Traveler
www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Civil.../USA_Patriot_Act_BillRights.html‎
To an unprecedented degree, the Act sacrifices our freedoms in the name of ... are being held without bond under the pretext of unrelated criminal charges or ...
Suspected Terrorists Can Be Indefinitely Detained Without a Trial
www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/...detained-without-trial/46818/‎
Dec 31, 2011 – "The recently passed National Defense Authorization Act continues that slip ... the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.

 

You can bet if they are targeting Verizon, they are looking at all others like AT&T, Sprint, etc. Hey they have to be able to tell the IRS who to go after.

 

Sorry, but I KNOW and I know it has been going on for a very long time. Grow up boy, face the facts and get on with your life. I have not lived a cloistered life. I know a few things that would curl your toes, but I cannot talk about them. For instance how the US and Russia came within 20 minutes of launching their nukes. Also how because of one Soviet officer, Vasili Alexandrovich Arkhipov, a nuclear war was averted. We were within seconds of one of their submarines launching nukes that time. That information is now unclassified.

You need to get out of your cloistered life and discover what the world is bout. Sitting on your duff in your office won't do it.

By the way, don't you have folk in your church who need to see you?

 

Here is the relevant part of the article that states this activity has never before been done:

The newspaper said the document, a copy of which it had obtained, shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk, regardless of whether the people are suspected of any wrongdoing.

Furthermore, they are not listening in on phone conversations, they are collecting phone call records. It sounds like a fishing expedition.

In any event it is a huge violation of people's privacy rights. First the AP reporters phone records, and now, millions of random people. Sickening.

 

Why does it matter whether you or I have something to hide? It's a violation of privacy whether there is something to hide or not.

 

Well, for a long time it has been happening. Remember the blowup in 2006?

 

Would you care to take a swing at actually answering my question?

 

If you mean the question about why does it matter ... to me personally it doesn't matter. To others it may matter ... but primarily only if they have something to hide.

Additionally:

 

I don't have anything particularly to hide but I would be uneasy at this level of government intrusion into our private lives. There's something that just doesn't smell right about it...

And I'm sure our government is up to it too, doubtless under the guise of national security.

 

It ought to matter to you. It was important enough for the issue to be dealt with in the Bill of Rights. And it has nothing to do with having nothing to hide. It is our constitutionally protected right!

 

Why haven't you protested before? It has been going on for a long time. I do not believe the founders had telephones in mind when they wrote the first amendment.

Do you object to security searches at airports?