Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Ali Watkins — Sen. Wyden says he tried to warn of massive surveillance program

“If we do not seize this unique moment in our constitutional history to reform our surveillance laws and practices, we will live to regret it,” [Sen Wyden] said.
“Sen. Mark Udall and I tried again and again to get the executive branch to be straight with the American public, but under the classification rules observed by the Senate, we are not even allowed to tap out the truth in Morse code,” he said. “And we tried just about everything else we could think of to warn the American people.”
Wyden blasted the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the body that must approve surveillance requests, saying that the veil of secrecy behind which it functions negates the concept of balanced oversight. The court’s secret interpretations of the Patriot Act and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act are too broad, he said, and render the legislation unrecognizable.
“I tell Oregonians that there are effectively two Patriot Acts,” he said. “The first is the one they can read on their laptop in Medford or Portland, analyze and understand,” Wyden said. “Then there’s the real Patriot Act – the secret interpretation of the law that the government is actually relying on.”
McClatchy News
Sen. Wyden says he tried to warn of massive surveillance program
Ali Watkins | McClatchy Washington Bureau

1 comment:

Calgacus said...

Well-meaning Dumbshits like Udall & Wyden are part of the problem unbeknownst to themselves.

under the classification rules observed by the Senate, we are not even allowed to tap out the truth in Morse code,” These classification rules are imposed by the Executive. Pure usurpation. These are legislators. The guys who are supposed to MAKE the rules that the Executive follows. Secret law IS. NOT. LAW. Words like "law" have meaning. Confucius say: Time for rectification of names.

Just be Bad Boys (who always get all the Girls) and BREAK these not-laws. DO what your are "Not Allowed". Call the tyrannical monster Executive, the gore-drenched murderer Obama's bluff.

The only thing to fear is fear itself. The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed. And these self-oppressed minds include those in the most truly, immediately, directly, absolutely powerful body in the world - the US Congress.