The NSA Speech: Obama Accepts the Logic of Staying Terrorized

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/the-nsa-speech-obama-accepts-the-logic-of-staying-terrorized/283173/

For critics of the surveillance state, it is tempting to see President Obama's speech today as a partial victory: Prompted by Edward Snowden's leaks and the public pressure for National Security Agency reforms, he announced significant changes to the program that collects and stores information about all telephone calls. And he promised that the masses in foreign countries will enjoy new protections. The substance of these and other proposed reforms is better than nothing.

Alas, any good feelings about marginal progress are undercut by a number of factors. Most alarmingly, announcing these reforms may relieve some of the pressure on the White House to rein in the surveillance state, even though they are wholly inadequate to protect the privacy of Americans or to prevent official abuses. (This is underscored by the fact that Obama's reforms exclude so many recommendations made by the advisory panel he convened to study the matter.) James Oliphant illustrates how little is changing with particular succinctness:

After Friday, keep in mind how the status quo has, or has not, been altered:

1. The phone metadata still exists.

2. It will be kept, at least in the short-term, by the government until Congress figures out what to do with it. (And don’t think the telecom lobby won’t play a role in that.)

3. It will be searched.

4. Searches will be approved by a court with a record of being friendly to the government, one without a new privacy advocate.

5.National security letters can still be issued by the FBI without a court order.

6.. Much of this activity will remain secret.

There is, as well, the possibility that even the inadequate reforms Obama announced today will never happen. The possibility should not be discounted, given the fact that the Guantanamo Bay prison remains open, the CIA continues to engage in semi-targeted killing, and drone strikes continue where there is significant risk of civilian casualties. A comprehensive list of War on Terror-related promises that Obama has made and broken would be much longer. Will he follow through on today's promises? The news media should not assume so. This president has used speeches just like this one as diversions before.

[KG]

1. the 'security' apparatus is becoming a branch of gov't unto its own self, answerable to nobody.

[pipoman]

2. The US is as ripe for a successful third party

Campaign as it has ever been in history, imho.

[Egalitarian Thug]

3. K&R #5. Very good, thank you.

[Progressive dog]

4. Who would have thought that the President was a realist,

he must have actually read the Constitution. I think there is a part about national defense.
Every single one of those reforms are dependent on him, so they can be reversed by him or the next President. Not one admission that what the NSA had been doing was illegal, not even an offer of clemency for Snowden.

[kelliekat44]

5. Never imagined.... using information to make realistic decisions. nt

[randome]

6. Getting what you wanted makes most people feel a sense of satisfaction.

Not everyone, apparently. Pity.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Sometimes it seems like the only purpose in life is to keep your car from touching another's.[/center][/font][hr]

[TheKentuckian]

11. Who got what they wanted?

[KurtNYC]

7. "The only thing we have to fear is...not being scared enough!" n/t

[riderinthestorm]

8. K&R for an excellent if depressing article... nt

[underthematrix]

9. Since President Obama has been the recipient of much of the wingnut hate and terror

I totally trust him on the issue of the NSA.

[PowerToThePeople]

10. The metadata still exists.

This is the issue. No warrant for the data collection was given. Destroy the data. Then, and only then, can you start talking about future reforms.