Nsa.

[DanISSELisdaman]

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/20/21975158-nsa-program-stopped-no-terror-attacks-says-white-house-panel-member

[badrose]

Rudderless.

[CitizenBBN]

That article and report makes several things clear:

-- NSA's longstanding surveillance of foreign communications is useful, but we have been doing that since before 9/11.
-- There is no security justification for the metadata gathering they are doing on Americans
-- Obama has no handle on the NSA at all. If it's government expansion he seems to be all for it without any critical thinking at all, from EPA to NSA and every agency in between. His defense of this program has having "saved lives", his direct statement, is obviously nonsense. Another in a long line of lies.
-- Lying to Congress if you are a federal agency or bureaucrat has become commonplace and accepted practice. They've been telling Congress about the importance of this program when in fact all the results they cite are coming from a separate program that monitors foreign communications. It's time to start tossing these people into prison for perjury to Congress by the dozen and end this corrupt mess. Congress has a legitimate Constitutional oversight authority and it is being flouted. Whether that is by Oliver North or the NSA now, the politics are irrelevant, we cannot let our bureaucrats run around and do whatever they want without elected Constitutional oversight.