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In reply to the discussion: Cenk Uygur on Melissa Harris-Perry: Obama Loyalists Attack Snowden... For Not Being MLK?! [View all]G_j
(40,568 posts)34. He started a petition:
http://org.credoaction.com/petitions/tell-congress-investigate-nsa-abuses-and-protect-our-constitutional-rights/?state=sign.
Tell Congress: Investigate NSA abuses and protect our constitutional rights
In 1975, Senator Frank Church, who led a committee charged with investigating and making public the abuses of American intelligence agencies, spoke of the National Security Agency in these terms:
"I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
The dangerous prospect of which he warned was that America's intelligence-gathering capability which is today beyond any comparison with what existed in his pre-digital era "at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left."
That has now happened. And so we need a new congressional committee like the one Senator Church led to investigate the revelations by Edward Snowden. The existing Intelligence Committees in House and Senate, gagged by secrecy and co-opted by the intelligence community they supposedly oversee, have failed to check dangerously excessive surveillance of Americans communications.
Please join me in signing a petition to Congress that reads:
We need a new Church Committee that is fully empowered to investigate the abuses of the NSA and make public its findings, and that is charged with recommending new laws to ensure the U.S. government does not violate our constitutional rights.
Pressure by an informed public on Congress to form a select committee to investigate these revelations might lead us to bring the NSA and the rest of the intelligence community under real supervision and restraint and restore the protections of the Bill of Rights.
Please join me in signing this petition.
Daniel Ellsberg
Tell Congress: Investigate NSA abuses and protect our constitutional rights
In 1975, Senator Frank Church, who led a committee charged with investigating and making public the abuses of American intelligence agencies, spoke of the National Security Agency in these terms:
"I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that we never cross over that abyss. That is the abyss from which there is no return."
The dangerous prospect of which he warned was that America's intelligence-gathering capability which is today beyond any comparison with what existed in his pre-digital era "at any time could be turned around on the American people and no American would have any privacy left."
That has now happened. And so we need a new congressional committee like the one Senator Church led to investigate the revelations by Edward Snowden. The existing Intelligence Committees in House and Senate, gagged by secrecy and co-opted by the intelligence community they supposedly oversee, have failed to check dangerously excessive surveillance of Americans communications.
Please join me in signing a petition to Congress that reads:
We need a new Church Committee that is fully empowered to investigate the abuses of the NSA and make public its findings, and that is charged with recommending new laws to ensure the U.S. government does not violate our constitutional rights.
Pressure by an informed public on Congress to form a select committee to investigate these revelations might lead us to bring the NSA and the rest of the intelligence community under real supervision and restraint and restore the protections of the Bill of Rights.
Please join me in signing this petition.
Daniel Ellsberg
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Cenk Uygur on Melissa Harris-Perry: Obama Loyalists Attack Snowden... For Not Being MLK?! [View all]
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
OP
To be somewhat fair, Bush circumvented the court and had warrantless wiretapping.
JaneyVee
Jul 2013
#5
A warrant that covers everyone? You don't need a warrant for metadata, but you do for wiretapping
JaneyVee
Jul 2013
#9
You *do* need a warrant for metadata. That's why FISA was involved to begin with.
SlimJimmy
Jul 2013
#10
Oh, I absolutely agree with you, and have said so many times in quite a few threads. I was
SlimJimmy
Jul 2013
#89
Agreed, but the previous poster said that no warrant was needed at all. Even under
SlimJimmy
Jul 2013
#93
26 Sens.: NSA is relying on a "secret body of law" to collect massive amounts of data on US citizens
usGovOwesUs3Trillion
Jul 2013
#65
For them, it doesn't matter whether the next president is Christie, Jeb Bush, or Clinton.
AnotherMcIntosh
Jul 2013
#27
You like authoritarians who support the super-rich, job outsourcing, endless wars, ...
AnotherMcIntosh
Jul 2013
#58
Have you ever been unhappy with authoritarians who support the super-rich, job outsourcing, endless
AnotherMcIntosh
Jul 2013
#63
Please find and post a statement from Ellsberg critical of Snowden's asylum requests.
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#23
I talked with Ellsberg on Sunday while marching (well - he rode) together in the Bradley Manning
Luminous Animal
Jul 2013
#83
You're conflating the PowerPoint slide about Internet Providers with the telecom data.
randome
Jul 2013
#68
lol - twisting in the wind you are... how about 26 senators saying the NSA is SPYING on Americans?
usGovOwesUs3Trillion
Jul 2013
#70
There is plenty of evidence, you just refuse to see for some reason
usGovOwesUs3Trillion
Jul 2013
#75
26 Sens.: NSA is relying on a "secret body of law" to collect massive amounts of data on US citizens
usGovOwesUs3Trillion
Jul 2013
#67
Many people cite Ellsberg in their criticism of Snowden and don't even know where he stands on him.
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#38
Watching MSNBC during this period is what it must have been like to watch Fox during the Bush years.
The Link
Jul 2013
#13
You mean Cenk the "former" Republican doesn't respect MHP? I'm shocked! Shocked, I say!
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#30
He's more consistent than the "I'm a Blue Dog" and "Moderate Republican of the 80's" Democrat n/t.
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#32
I'm not surprised Cenk doesn't care much for MHP or Pres. Obama. It's in his DNA.
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#47
It just so happens that you have problems with people that have been critical of Obama
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#62
But enough about me. Nothing about Cenk's sudden & inexplicable conversion?
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#66
You reply makes no sense. You can't refute the argument so you attack the messenger.
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#69
Well our President calls himself a moderate republican now. What can we assume about his motives?
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#80
What you don't get is that there was never an argument to be had. I know who Cenk is.
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#86
If that's true, then win a fuckin' national election, why doncha? "Authoritarians & Totalitarians"?
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#78
we all have a role to play, mine is not in comforting them in their wrong-doing
usGovOwesUs3Trillion
Jul 2013
#81
Go win an election, then we might have something to talk about. Until then.....
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#85
It's always nice to see MLK and Rosa Parks used to defend the abuses of the powerful.
JVS
Jul 2013
#31
You defenders conveniently forget the 4 laptops & the little tryst with China & Russia, don't you?
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#44
You'd charge Ellsberg for the binders and paperclips he used to collect the Pentagon papers. n/t
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#46
Ellsberg didn't run off to China and tell them what we were doing in Vietnam.
Major Hogwash
Jul 2013
#82
As I expected, you completely evade the issue that's troubling even the most ardent Snowden....
Tarheel_Dem
Jul 2013
#84
I do not always agree with every decision Obama makes or every statement but since he
Thinkingabout
Jul 2013
#48
You can disagree but how do you disagree with yourself based on who's in office?
NOVA_Dem
Jul 2013
#61