Critics Slam NSA Spy Mongers for Exploiting Intelligence Warnings | Common
Dreams
Published on Tuesday, August 6, 2013 by Common Dreams
Critics Slam NSA Spy Mongers for Exploiting Intelligence
Warnings
US officials banking on terror threat to build justification
for NSA spying; civil liberties advocates call foul
- Sarah Lazare, staff writer
As US embassies remain closed across the Middle East, North Africa, and
Central Asia in response to a reported terror threat, critics are blasting
politicians for exploiting recent State Department warnings to build the case
that vast NSA spying is a necessary protection. Sen. Saxy Chambliss (R-T.N.)
appears on NBC's Meet the Press
Sunday (Photo: Meet the Press)
Critics slam the cynical attempt to play to people's fears to silence debate
over widely
unpopular NSA spying programs and beef up US military presence across the
world. The legitimacy of the data revealing the alleged terror plot is not
broadly coming under question, but the way it is being used to build the
political agenda of expanding the US security and surveillance state is being
hotly contested.
While the media widely reported Monday that the latest terror alert was
spurred by intercepted communication between Al Qaeda leaders and Yemeni
organizations, it is not clear how much of, or whether, this information was
intercepted by the vast NSA surveillance dragnet. Nonetheless, several
politicians—many of them long-time war hawks—are clamoring to tell the press
that the alleged interception of a terror plot shows that NSA spying saves
lives.
"These [NSA] programs are controversial. We understand that," Sen. Saxby
Chambliss (R-Georg.) told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, the Guardian reports.
"But they are also very important... If we did not have these programs, then we
simply would not be able to listen in on the bad guys."
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) declared Sunday to CNN: "The NSA program is
proving its worth yet again."
Reps. C. A. Dutch Ruppersberger (R-Mar.) and Michael McCaul (R-Tex.) were also
quick to trumpet the virtues of NSA spying to the media, with Ruppersberger
declaring to ABC, "[The] good news is that we picked up intelligence. That’s
what the NSA does."
Journalist Glenn Greenwald who broke the NSA spying story slammed the rush to
exploit US fears to justify a broad and limitless spying program in
an interview with Democracy Now! on Monday:
[H]ere we are in the midst of, you know, one of the most intense debates and
sustained debates that we’ve had in a very long time in this country over the
dangers of excess surveillance, and suddenly an administration that has spent
two years claiming that it has decimated AL-Qaeda decides that there is this
massive threat that involves the closing of embassies and consulates
throughout the world.
>And within literally an amount of hours, the likes of Saxby Chambliss and
>Lindsey Graham join with the White House and Democrats in Congress—who,
>remember, are the leading defenders of the NSA at this point—to exploit that
>terrorist threat and to insist that it shows that the NSA and these programs
>are necessary.
>...The controversy is over the fact that they are sweeping up billions and
>billions of emails and telephone calls every single day from people around the
> world and in the United States who have absolutely nothing to do with
>terrorism.
Not all politicians are jumping on board to praise the NSA for unfoiling a
potential terror plot. “There's no indication, unless I'm proved wrong later,
that that program which collects vast amounts of … domestic telephone data
contributed to information about this particular plot,” Rep. Adam Schiff
(R-Mass.) told CNN.
Nonetheless, critics worry that spying advocate are using the moment to shift
the debate away from mass outrage about secret surveillance. Amie Stepanovich,
a
lawyer with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, warned the Guardian of a
burgeoning "culture of fear and unquestioning deference
to surveillance in the United States."
_____________________
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digest: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Post: <mailto:[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[email protected]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
