Verizon Scandal: Intel Director Testified in March that Gov. Does Not Collect Data on Americans

[mystery-ak]

http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2013/06/06/Three-Months-Ago-Director-of-National-Intelligence-Testified-Gov-Does-Not-Collect-Data-On-Americans


On March 12, 2013, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and other intelligence officials testified about current and future threats to the United States. Senator Ron Wyden asked: "Does the NSA collect any kind of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans? Clapper answered: "No, sir." Wyden: "It does not?" Clapper: "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could, inadvertently, perhaps..."
6 Jun 2013, 10:40 AM PDT

[musiclady]

Not wittingly?  You mean they just happened to gather information on Verizon customers and didn't realize it??

Yeah........................right........................

[Cincinnatus]

The oath of office all commissioned officers in the US military take:

“I, (state your name), having been appointed a (rank) in the United States (branch of service), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foriegn and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the office upon which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Lieutenant General James R. Clapper considered it an advisory.

Perjury.

[sinkspur]

Everybody on the conservative side is frantic over this.  GEORGE W. BUSH'S administration did the very same thing!

Congress has been briefed on this, which is why you see NO Congresspeople (other than Rand Paul) screaming about it.

Now, the internet data mining is different, but I suspect it's also done under a FISA judge, so it is perfectly legal under the Patriot Act.

[Cincinnatus]

Congress has been briefed on this, which is why you see NO Congresspeople (other than Rand Paul) screaming about it.

Really? Just a cursory check on that claim:

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., who as chairman of the House Judiciary Committee helped write the Patriot Act after the September 11 terrorist attacks, said that the Obama administration’s move to collect phone records of Verizon customers is an “abuse” of the snooping law.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., the Wisconsin Republican said the FBI went far beyond what he’d intended in the Patriot Act when it applied for a secret court order to gather records of phone calls from Verizon customers.

“I do not believe the released [secret court] order is consistent with the requirements of the Patriot Act,” the congressman wrote. “How could the phone records of so many innocent Americans be relevant to an authorized investigation as required by the act?”
http://www.washingtontimes.com/blog/inside-politics/2013/jun/6/patriot-act-author-verizon-snooping-violates-law/

Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, a Senate Intelligence Committee member who had previously warned that the government was collecting too much data on U.S. citizens, on Thursday charged that the government collection of Verizon phone records was a "massive invasion of Americans' privacy."
http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2013/06/wyden_calls_government_sweep_o.html

Not screaming, of course, but perhaps there was some hyperbole in that word choice to begin with. Ya think?

[ABX]

Everybody on the conservative side is frantic over this.  GEORGE W. BUSH'S administration did the very same thing!

Congress has been briefed on this, which is why you see NO Congresspeople (other than Rand Paul) screaming about it.

Now, the internet data mining is different, but I suspect it's also done under a FISA judge, so it is perfectly legal under the Patriot Act.

..and you would be wrong again. As I posted in the previous thread, the wiretapping under Bush happened on calls that did fall under the prevalence of the rules that govern FISA, specifically that they are under a foreign control or involving foreign operatives (my terms, see the other thread for direct quotes). The FISA laws specifically prohibit domestic information gathering like this.