Source: Mike Malloy
Proving again that anything the Bush Crime Family Could do, they could do better, an independent review board announced that the Obama administration's broad data-mining of innocent US citizens was, in fact, illegal. Gee ... really?
The Washington Post reports...
"An independent executive branch board has concluded that the National Security Agency's long-running program to collect billions of Americans' phone records is illegal and should end. In a strongly worded report to be issued Thursday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) said that the statute upon which the program was based, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, 'does not provide an adequate basis to support this program.'
"' The recommendations ... add to the growing chorus calling for an end to the government's dragnet collection of Americans' phone records,' said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. 'The report reaffirms the conclusion of many that the Section 215 bulk phone records program has not been critical to our national security, is not worth the intrusion on Americans' privacy and should be shut down immediately.'
"The report concluded that the NSA collection raises 'constitutional concerns' with regard to U.S. citizens' rights of speech, association and privacy. 'The connections revealed by the extensive database of telephone records gathered under the program will necessarily include relationships established among individuals and groups for political, religious, and other expressive purposes,' it said. 'Compelled disclosure to the government of information revealing these associations can have a chilling effect on the exercise of First Amendment rights.'"
Not a single terrorist plot or act has been uncovered as a result of this invasive tracking of every phone call placed in America. And how much does a massive operation like this cost? Is this a way to justify the existence of the Department of Homeland Security? Perhaps now, as this was an NSA operation.
Which begs the question, what does the Department of Homeland Security do, exactly? Why does it exist? Like so many of the Bush Crime Family operations, it was incredibly expensive and seemingly useless. Much like the never-ending terror wars. The billions of taxpayer dollars (and countless innocent lives) lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. The billions more shuffled to private defense contractors and as gifts/bribes to Iraqi officials.
Now this. As taxpayers, we are paying our government to spy on us. As a nation, can we still call ourselves free?
