White House Invokes ‘STATE PRIVILEGE’ To HALT Inquiries Into Data Mining

[brett_jv]

88. My issue is mostly in the way things are being represented in the Media

Take this very article, where GREAT pains are taken to create the impression in the reader that what is going on here is UNPRECEDENTED. When, in reality, neither the spying program(s), NOR the use of the State Secrets Act, is remotely 'new'. Bush used State Secrets Act over 20 times (pretty sure Sibel Edmonds was a famous example), yet we're being led by the nose into thinking that it's NEW, and RARE, to the point of nefariousness, by this article.

I'm not saying I'm not 100% against the use of the Secrets Act in this way. I Hated it when Bush did it, and I hate it now that Obama is.

But look at the timing, and the way the article is written, esp. the title. This is OLD NEWS, really. It has NOTHING to do with the current Verizon 'data mining' operation ... but it's constructed in way designed to manipulate the casual reader into thinking that the Administration is 'protecting itself' by shutting down investigations into the CURRENT 'scandal'.

As evidence for this, just check out the link right there in the first line, that takes you to the NSA Verizon thing ... and the author does this even though the (oh so rarely used) SSA is ACTUALLY being invoked regarding something TOTALLY DIFFERENT ... a couple of Bush-era court cases ... IOW, the REAL story is about an ongoing act of protecting friggin BUSH!

In fact, I'd be willing to bet that it was, in fact, Bush ... who was the one who originally invoked State Secrets in these Court Cases that the article is referring to. But ... there's NO mention of that ... just a blatant attempt to conflate application of SSA to the Verizon case.

So, my big gripe overall is explained in my responses to one of the sub-threads above ... In a nutshell, I'm starting to strongly believe that we're watching an 'Operation TakeDown Obama' going down right before our eyes. And that it constitutes, basically, an illegal coup.