When we were kids playing a game like “kick the can” we used to yell “Olly Olly Oxen Free.”  That told everyone still hiding that it was ok to come in without penalty.  I can’t think of a better way to describe how the NSA phone tapping scandal released liberals from their cone of silence.  The liberal left came out of hiding and they are the ones screaming the loudest.  Ironically, Obama has more support from Republicans than Democrats, which is remarkable.  I expect the Republican support to start vanishing when more and more facts are released.

This all dates back to 2001, after the September 11 terrorist attack, when George Bush authorized the NSA to go on a terrorist hunt.  They basically looked for people who phoned al Qaeda or other suspected terrorists overseas.  Most knowledgeable people believe that this program stopped at least some terrorist attacks.  George Bush gave a speech in 2006, where he said that he had personally authorized this and he explained his reasoning:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/01/nsa.spying/

The NSA was authorized to intercept certain domestic communications without a warrant, as long as one party was outside the United States.

At the time, Democrats expressed concern over the invasion of privacy and Republicans said it was a small price to pay for security.  At the time it seemed like a good idea, primarily because no one ever accused George Bush of abusing this power.  Even his harshest enemies acknowledge that Bush used this solely to hunt terrorists.  He actually had pretty strong bi-partisan support.  The Patriot Act passed with 98 votes in the Senate in 2001 and 89 votes when it was re-authorized in 2006.

I remember reading about this at the time and asking myself if I would trust a Democratic President with this type of power.  I was not worried about George W. Bush because he seem focused on hunting down terrorists.  But I was very concerned over the next President who might have a very different view of the world.  Unfortunately, that fear has now been justified.

That is exactly the problem with the NSA program.  I doubt that anyone really knows how the Obama administration is using the data, we just know they have access to:  EVERYTHING.  They have requested data on EVERYONE.   Even if they are not abusing it, which is far from certain, this is not acceptable.  Once that data is loaded on a data base it is only a matter of time before it is abused.

As far as I can tell, Bush only asked for access to overseas phone calls.  Mother Jones, not exactly a right wing rag, confirms this:

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/06/timeline-nsa-domestic-surveillance-bush-obama

This time line is devastating for the Obama administration.  There was a remarkable change that started in 2009, right about the time Barack Hussein Obama came into office.  The comparison between the safeguards in place during the Bush administration and the safeguards in place during the Obama administration could not be starker:

2008

July 10: Bush signs the FISA Amendments Act, which gives the federal government the power to compel telecoms to provide access to emails, phone calls, and text messages if one party is “reasonably believed” to be overseas. The law also gives legal immunity to the phone companies that had participated in the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping program. Sen. Obama opposes extending immunity to the phone companies, but votes for what he calls “an improved but imperfect bill.” 

2009

April 15: Intelligence officials tell the New York Times about the “overcollection” of domestic communication by the NSA despite the new limits set in 2008.

2011

May 26: Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) say that the Department of Justice has been misapplying the Patriot Act to allow expanded domestic surveillance. “When the American people find out how their government has secretly interpreted the Patriot Act, they will be stunned and they will be angry,” says Wyden.

2012

July 20: In a letter to Wyden, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence concedes that some of the surveillance conducted under the 2008 FISA amendment has “sometimes circumvented the spirit of the law” and that one occasion a FISA judge found such “collection” to violate the Fourth Amendment

December 30: Obama signs a five-year extension of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Amendments to provide more oversight of untargeted mass wiretapping are defeated in the Senate. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) says the surveillance of foreigners’ communications in the United States “produced and continues to produce significant information that is vital to defend the nation against international terrorism and other threats.”

2013

March 12: During an intelligence committee hearing, Sen. Wyden asks Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, “Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?” Clapper’s reply: “No sir.”

June 7: “Nobody is listening to your telephone calls. That’s not what this program’s about,” Obama says at a speech in Silicon Valley. “But by sifting through this so-called metadata, they may identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism.” He adds, “”You can’t have 100 percent security and then also have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience.”

This is really bad, no matter how you look at it.  When you combine this with the obvious abuse of power by the IRS, spying on reporters by the DOJ and the deliberate lies and distortions after Benghazi, this becomes earthshattering.  It is impossible to have any confidence in the integrity of this administration.

I do not know where this is headed, but it is definitely headed toward a very dark place.  We haven’t seen anything this bad since Watergate.  At least Nixon limited his abuse of power to known enemies.

TDM