Surprise: At the End, Obama Administration Gave NSA Broad New Powers

[anubias]

This story, from the Jan. 12, 2017, edition of the New York Times, was little-remarked upon at the time, but suddenly has taken on far greater significance in light of current events:

In its final days, the Obama administration has expanded the power of the National Security Agency to share globally intercepted personal communications with the government’s 16 other intelligence agencies before applying privacy protections.

The new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches.

The change means that far more officials will be searching through raw data. Essentially, the government is reducing the risk that the N.S.A. will fail to recognize that a piece of information would be valuable to another agency, but increasing the risk that officials will see private information about innocent people.

One of the central questions behind the Mike Flynn flap that should have been asked but largely wasn't is: who was wiretapping the general? The answer, we know now, was the National Security Agency, formerly known as No Such Agency, the nation's foremost signals-intelligence (SIGINT) collection department.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/02/15/surprise-at-the-end-obama-administration-gave-nsa-broad-new-powers/

[Norm Lenhart]

Someone remind me what a terrible guy Snowden was.

[XenaLee]

Where should the line be drawn?   Ironic that Obama, king of political correctness, would enable sharing of info between our intel agencies.... when the Clinton administration did the exact opposite, due to political correctness. 

It's not a bad thing ....  that sharing of intelligence.... between agencies.  Not when they're snooping on the bad guys.   But under Obama, they would have been snooping on anyone that didn't kiss his @ss.  Sets a bad precedent, doesn't it.

If these broad new powers represent a threat to our freedom, then Congress should pass a law reigning in those powers.  Right?
 

[Norm Lenhart]

Where should the line be drawn?   Ironic that Obama, king of political correctness, would enable sharing of info between our intel agencies.... when the Clinton administration did the exact opposite, due to political correctness. 

It's not a bad thing ....  that sharing of intelligence.... between agencies.  Not when they're snooping on the bad guys.   But under Obama, they would have been snooping on anyone that didn't kiss his @ss.  Sets a bad precedent, doesn't it.

If these broad new powers represent a threat to our freedom, then Congress should pass a law reigning in those powers.  Right?

Thanks to 'pragmatic' voters electing unprincipled Republicans (who are always better than a democrat, so I hear), thats pretty unlikely.

[anubias]

I'm no longer on the fence about Snowden.  Trump should pardon him.

[anubias]

Thanks to 'pragmatic' voters electing unprincipled Republicans (who are always better than a democrat, so I hear), thats pretty unlikely.

Must R's love this mess and think Snowden should get the firing squad.

[anubias]

Not sure if this has been posted, but the Wall Street Journal says the IAs are withholding info from Trump because they don't trust him with it.  It might be leaked.   

https://www.wsj.com/articles/spies-keep-intelligence-from-donald-trump-1487209351

[Norm Lenhart]

Must R's love this mess and think Snowden should get the firing squad.

Thats why I left the party. Too many idiots.

[Norm Lenhart]

I'm no longer on the fence about Snowden.  Trump should pardon him.

Snowden revealed exactly how little Republicans/so called conservatives actually believe the words they speak. For years they spammed the idea that some white knight should expose the BS going on in DC. Snowden did exactly that and they crucified him for it. to this day they make up excuses about him not doing it right but they werent specific when posting one diatribe after another about draining swamps and exposing corruption.

Once they realized it was messy business that impacted everyone personally, they went into ostrich mode and want the messenger dead.

Frauds. Every one of them. F R A U D S.