Intrusive Surveillance: Obama Defends NSA Spying on Americans!

• Intrusive Surveillance: Obama Defends NSA Spying on Americans! 
  by Jack A. Smith, http://www.globalresearch.ca/ 
  When he ran for the presidency in 2007-08, Sen. Barack Obama pledged to dismantle the most intrusive aspects of President George W. Bush’s post-9/11 surveillance programs. Instead, since taking office in January 2009, President Obama has secretly (until a few month ago) allowed those programs to expand as well as adding a number of his own measures that increasingly jeopardize American civil liberties.
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  Ever since whistle-blowing NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed the elephantine extent of the Bush-Obama Surveillance State’s domestic and foreign spying last summer, White House and NSA officials have sought through obfuscation and fabrication to minimize the impact of these disclosures. Public opinion against surveillance measures, however, has been slowly gaining over the months.
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  Opposition had reached the point when a nationwide speech from Obama was required to ease growing national distrust. Speaking from the Justice Dept. Jan. 17, with six large American flags directly behind him to emphasize the importance of national security and patriotism, Obama declared: “The reforms I’m proposing today should give the American people greater confidence that their rights are being protected, even as our intelligence and law enforcement agencies maintain the tools they need to keep us safe.”
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  His effort to convince the American people that the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance apparatus constituted no danger to domestic civil liberties evidently failed, according to a Jan. 17-19 poll conducted by the Pew Research Center/USA Today. They reported, “among 1,504 adults, overall approval of the program has declined since last summer, when the story first broke. Today, 40% approve of the government’s collection of telephone and Internet data as part of anti-terrorism efforts, while 53% disapprove. In July, more Americans approved (50%) than disapproved (44%) of the program.”
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  Regardless of public qualms, it is obvious that the NSA’s monumental domestic and foreign spying will continue with only superficial changes, judging by the proposals Obama suggested in his defense of domestic and foreign snooping. What will not change are the worst excesses of all — the bulk collection of phone records and other sensitive data allowed by the Patriot Act, the dragnet surveillance of international communications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and warrantless “backdoor” searches of Americans’ international communications.
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  After the speech, ACLU executive director Anthony Romero commented: “The president should end – not mend – the government’s collection and retention of all law-abiding Americans’ data. When the government collects and stores every American’s phone call data, it is engaging in a textbook example of an ‘unreasonable search’ that violates the constitution.”
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  Most of the Senate and House appear to support the NSA surveillance, either as it now stands or with Obama’s tepid “reforms” intended to deceive and lull Americans concerned about privacy rights. The continued erosion of civil liberties is further assured by the composition of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, both of which are in the hands of fanatically pro-surveillance chairs — Republican Rep. Mike Rogers, and Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
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