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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'WE'RE REALLY SCREWED NOW': NSA's Best Friend Just SHIVVED The Spies
One of the National Security Agency's biggest defenders in Congress is suddenly at odds with the agency and calling for a top-to-bottom review of U.S. spy programs. And her long-time friends and allies are completely mystified by the switch. "We're really screwed now," one NSA official told The Cable. "You know things are bad when the few friends you've got disappear without a trace in the dead of night and leave no forwarding address." In a pointed statement issued today, Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Dianne Feinstein said she was "totally opposed" to gathering intelligence on foreign leaders and said it was "a big problem" if President Obama didn't know the NSA was monitoring the phone calls of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said the United States should only be spying on foreign leaders with hostile countries, or in an emergency, and even then the president should personally approve the surveillance. It was not clear what precipitated Feinstein's condemnation of the NSA. It marks a significant reversal for a lawmaker who not only defended agency surveillance programs -- but is about to introduce a bill expected to protect some of its most controversial activities.
Perhaps most significant is her announcement that the intelligence committee "will initiate a review into all intelligence collection programs." Feinstein did not say the review would be limited only to the NSA. If the review also touched on other intelligence agencies under the committee's jurisdiction, it could be one of the most far-reaching reviews in recent memory, encompassing secret programs of the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency, agencies that run imagery and spy satellites, as well as components of the FBI. A former intelligence agency liaison to Congress said Feinstein's sudden outrage over spying on foreign leaders raised questions about how well informed she was about NSA programs and whether she'd been fully briefed by her staff. "The first question I'd ask is, what have you been doing for oversight? Second, if you've been reviewing this all along what has changed your mind?" The former official said the intelligence committees receive lengthy and detailed descriptions every year about all NSA programs, including surveillance. "They're not small books. They're about the size of those old family photo albums that were several inches thick. They're hundreds of pages long." A senior congressional aide said, "It's an absolute joke to think she hasn't been reading the signals intelligence intercepts as Chairman of Senate Intelligence for years."
The former official added that the "bottom line question is where was the Senate Intelligence Committee when it came to their oversight of these programs? And what were they being told by the NSA, because if they didn't know about this surveillance, that would imply they were being lied to." A spokesperson for Feinstein did not respond to a request for more details in time for publication. And a spokesperson for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the intelligence committee's vice chairman, said the senator had no comment at this time. In a tacit acknowledgement of how supportive Feinstein has been of the administration's surveillance practices, the White House issued a lengthy statement about her Monday remarks.
cont'
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/10/28/were_really_screwed_now_nsas_best_friend_just_shivved_the_spies
MindMover
(5,016 posts)political positions with a phone call ... and Ms. Feinstein is not immune ...
Hutzpa
(11,461 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)MindMover
(5,016 posts)Hutzpa
(11,461 posts)as I did not want to misconstrue your comment.
Are you suggesting big money will bribe Diane just so she can change her position?
MindMover
(5,016 posts)I said...
Constituents with huge money and power can determine ..
political positions with a phone call ... and Ms. Feinstein is not immune ...
Our reality in this world is that money is power and power is in the money ...
If you disagree, please submit your thoughts ...
NBachers
(16,998 posts)oooooOOOOOoooo
starroute
(12,977 posts)Feinstein is a senator from California. The tech companies that are a mainstay of California's economy are already taking a serious hit as people in other countries decide that they can no longer trust their data to any firm based in the US. So she's gotten the message loud and clear that she has to do whatever it take to get the NSA off their backs.
There. That's not so complicated -- or so woo-woo -- as you thought. Is it?
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)While I admit to being cynical a majority of the time I have no reason to suspect her strings are being pulled. She seemed to turn when the revelation of spying on Merkel broke in the news.
MindMover
(5,016 posts)Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)only that when the news about Merkel broke, being a head of state that was spied on is when I think she became really interested into the NSA maybe going to far. That heads of state were being spied on, not that Merkel is a woman.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)She needs to take a long vacation. We, the people, do not need someone like this in oversight of the spy department. We need someone who respects our freedoms and will work to protect those freedoms.
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)After all the crap they spewed about the spying for the past months, after all the bad mouthing of Snowden and Greenwald, the head of intelligence in congress has just exposed them all to be, well, idiots.
Think they'll come back and beg for forgiveness?
solarhydrocan
(551 posts)The TPP Train is coming down the tracks fast. Talking points desperately needed. Overtime involved. Creativity: mandatory. (there's that word!)
sibelian
(7,804 posts)It's suchanincrediblenonISSSSSUUUUUEEE you make such a big deal out of stuff, etc.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Angela Merkel (assuming that is true):
Because our intelligence folks did not find anything interesting or useful or relevant enough in the surveillance records of Angela Merkel's phone to include in an intelligence brief.
I cannot imagine much of anything they could learn from listening in on Angela Merkel's private handy (cell phone) that they couldn't easily learn from other, better sources. It was stupid to listen to her phone in the first place.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)The NSA didn't reveal it spied on the leaders of our allies to the president and chose to hide this program to Obama..... because they didn't get anything? This implies that they and they alone consider what is or what is not important... not the president nor the Congress
If the president didn't know until this summer it means it was A SECRET CONSPIRACY TO HIDE IT FOR MANY YEARS.. Read that again.. it was a hidden conspiracy by the NSA.
IF He was briefed in 2009 and did nothing .... I doubt that happened.
Feinstein now is shocked by the NSA spying on leaders after all her briefings over the years even before Obama came to power and she never knew... So much for congressional oversight, or was she lying too or had NSA problems which caused her not to reveal it. Either way it is not a good sign and a CONSPIRACY.
Now we must ask....... What else does the NSA and CIA hide? They both use each other when they can.
Who is really in charge of the NSA?
Th1onein
(8,514 posts)Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)Had to be that psychopath
Italy's Silvio Berlusconi who I guess
They found nothing on either.......LOL
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)It would be unusual for it to include raw intelligence information or information about sources and methods.
It is the product of extensive filtering and analysis -- the President doesn't have much time.
Ichingcarpenter
(36,988 posts)on your part.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)President's Daily Brief
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President's_Daily_Brief
Autumn
(44,743 posts)The NSA didn't reveal it spied on the leaders of our allies to the president and chose to hide this program to Obama..... because they didn't get anything? This implies that they and they alone consider what is or what is not important... not the president nor the Congress
That right there says everything that needs to be said.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)rusty fender
(3,428 posts)That it is what it sounds like, to me.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)She looks like she could either burst into tears or bite a railroad spike in two.
hootinholler
(26,449 posts)If you can direct the hearings, maybe you can avoid the worst being revealed.
I want investigation by those who are not currently involved in security oversight. Clearly they have failed to adequately oversee these agencies.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)eShirl
(18,466 posts)tblue37
(64,979 posts)was being spied on.
Agony
(2,605 posts)spying, surveillance and secrecy are out of control.
99Forever
(14,524 posts)... Diane, the government version of "Horders" isn't pretty, is it hun?
Where the fuck was your "outrage" when you thought these asswipes were just spying on us peons?
TheKentuckian
(24,934 posts)The knickers twist when the spying is on those with wealth and power aka the people that one would assume are the purpose of spots. Weird stuff.
dgibby
(9,474 posts)just follow the money. Must be high level angst she's feeling, as it was no big deal for her when it was just the peons being spied on. Looks like someone's chickens are coming home to roost, imo.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)Self preservation is nine tenths, and all that.
FarCenter
(19,429 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)have been "spied upon." A tip off to her that Snowden has info about this which is going to be revealed. After all...by now NSA has got to know what Snowden retrieved.
Isn't her husband a Defense Contractor?
Just my speculation of course. But, surely Senate and House Committee Members could have been targeted? Why not?
Baitball Blogger
(46,570 posts)Computer intelligence is to blame.