{"id":1414,"date":"2013-08-10T23:29:39","date_gmt":"2013-08-10T23:29:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/?p=1414"},"modified":"2014-02-09T04:05:57","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T04:05:57","slug":"truth-about-nsa-spying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/blog\/2013\/08\/truth-about-nsa-spying\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Won\u2019t They Tell Us the Truth About NSA Spying? – Article by Ron Paul"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"The<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Ron Paul
\n<\/big><\/big><\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
August 10, 2013<\/big><\/span><\/div>\n
Recommend this page<\/a>.<\/strong><\/div>\n
******************************<\/div>\n
In 2001, the Patriot Act opened the door to US government monitoring of Americans without a warrant. It was unconstitutional, but most in Congress over my strong objection were so determined to do something after the attacks of 9\/11 that they did not seem to give it too much thought. Civil liberties groups were concerned, and some of us in Congress warned about giving up our liberties even in the post-9\/11 panic. But at the time most Americans did not seem too worried about the intrusion.<\/div>\n
***<\/span><\/div>\n
\n

This complacency has suddenly shifted given recent revelations of the extent of government spying on Americans. Federal politicians and bureaucrats are faced with serious backlash from Americans outraged that their most personal communications are intercepted and stored. They had been told that only the terrorists would be monitored. In response to this anger, defenders of the program have time and again resorted to spreading lies and distortions. But these untruths are now being exposed very quickly.<\/p>\n

In a Senate hearing this March, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told Senator Ron Wyden that the NSA did not collect phone records of millions of Americans. This was just three months before the revelations of an NSA leaker made it clear that Clapper was not telling the truth. Pressed on his false testimony before Congress, Clapper apologized for giving an \u201cerroneous\u201d answer but claimed<\/a> it was just because he \u201csimply didn\u2019t think of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.\u201d Wow.<\/p>\n

As the story broke in June of the extent of warrantless NSA spying against Americans, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers assured us<\/a> that the project was a strictly limited and not invasive. He described it as a \u201clockbox with only phone numbers, no names, no addresses in it, we\u2019ve used it sparingly, it is absolutely overseen by the legislature, the judicial branch and the executive branch, has lots of protections built in…\u201d<\/p>\n

But we soon discovered that also was not true either. We learned<\/a> in another Guardian newspaper article last week that the top secret \u201cX-Keyscore\u201d program allows even low-level analysts to \u201csearch with no prior authorization through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The keys to Rogers\u2019 \u201clockbox\u201d seem to have been handed out to everyone but the janitors! As Chairman of the Committee that is supposed to be most in the loop on these matters, it seems either the Intelligence Community misled him about their programs or he misled the rest of us. It sure would be nice to know which one it is.<\/p>\n

Likewise, Rep. Rogers and many other defenders of the NSA spying program promised us that this dragnet scooping up the personal electronic communications of millions of Americans had already stopped \u201cdozens\u201d<\/a> of terrorist plots against the United States. In June, NSA director General Keith Alexander claimed<\/a> that the just-disclosed bulk collection of Americans\u2019 phone and other electronic records had \u201cfoiled 50 terror plots.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opponents of the program were to be charged with being unconcerned with our security.<\/p>\n

But none of it was true.<\/p>\n

On August 3, 2013, the Senate Judiciary Committee heard dramatic testimony from NSA deputy director John C. Inglis. According to the Guardian:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NSA has previously claimed that 54 terrorist plots had been disrupted \u2018over the lifetime\u2019 of the bulk phone records collection and the separate program collecting the internet habits and communications of people believed to be non-Americans. On Wednesday, Inglis said that at most one plot might have been disrupted by the bulk phone records collection alone.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

From dozens to \u201cat most one\u201d?<\/p>\n

Supporters of these programs are now on the defensive, with several competing pieces of legislation in the House and Senate seeking to rein in an administration and intelligence apparatus that is clearly out of control. This is to be commended. What is even more important, though, is for more and more and more Americans to educate themselves about our precious liberties and to demand that their government abide by the Constitution. We do not have to accept being lied to \u2013 or spied on — by our government.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Ron Paul, MD, is a former three-time Republican candidate for U. S. President and Congressman from Texas.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

This article is reprinted with permission.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ron Paul August 10, 2013 Recommend this page. ****************************** In 2001, the Patriot Act opened the door to US government monitoring of Americans without a warrant. It was unconstitutional, but most in Congress over my strong objection were so determined to do something after the attacks of 9\/11 that they did not seem to give it too much thought. Civil liberties groups were concerned, and some of us in Congress warned about giving up our liberties even in the post-9\/11…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2254,76,324,616,463,2253,171,2297,2296,59,464,2183,368,2187,65,2298,841,447,202,755,25,2295],"class_list":["post-1414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-4th-amendment","tag-barack-obama","tag-civil-liberties","tag-constitution","tag-deception","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-internet","tag-james-clapper","tag-keith-alexander","tag-liberty","tag-lies","tag-mike-rogers","tag-nsa","tag-prism","tag-ron-paul","tag-ron-wyden","tag-secrecy","tag-spying","tag-surveillance","tag-unconstitutional","tag-united-states","tag-x-keyscore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1414"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2007,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1414\/revisions\/2007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rationalargumentator.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}