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Related: About this forumJames Clapper Calls Journalists "Criminal Accomplices" - Trevor Timm Discusses
RC
(25,592 posts)He should have been fired even before his lying to Congress. We don't need the all fear, all the time paranoids, with this much power in the first place.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)RC
(25,592 posts)But yeah, if you or I did that, we'd never see the sun again, except by accident.
When you have access to everyone's private lives, you can get away with a lot.
truth2power
(8,219 posts)Really outraged, he was. Ugh!
Edit to add: Link, before one of the gatekeepers shows up to tell me it ain't so.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/01/31/the-switchboard-obama-admits-clapper-should-have-been-more-careful-in-lie-to-congress/
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)RC
(25,592 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)RC
(25,592 posts)Another is, why did he appoint an Alexander clone, as Gen. Keith B. Alexander replacement, or at least not object?
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)heads of the intelligence agencies and they convinced him that they had a smooth program running that was keeping America safe and if he messed with it, there is no guarantee that something bad wouldnt happen. And it would all be on Obama. If you think about it, how do you ever get spies to work for you? Who would you find that you could trust that had enough experience to be able to do something? It shouldnt be to hard to figure out that the spy agencies' number one goal is to be powerful. That supersedes someone else's (like a Democratic president) idea of what is proper.
RC
(25,592 posts)The personality change was obvious.
warrant46
(2,205 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)warrant46
(2,205 posts)But lately the "True Believers" would turn this into a flame fest --- so I pass
SamKnause
(13,043 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)and why the obsession with security reflects who has the real power in our government.
James Clapper is ripping the First Amendment apart. He does not understand the principles of separation of powers and why that principle is the underpinning of our democracy and the basis for the unity and security of our country.
It is now more clear than ever that a tiny clique of self-important people in intelligence, the military and the NSA and other related agencies have virtually taken over the government. They are the real power in the government, and not a one of them was elected.
The first steps toward a military or intelligence dictatorship appear to be in place. It may never have been the intention of the individuals who work in those agencies to place themselves in position to disrupt our government and our way of life, but these remarks by Clapper suggest that in their own minds only they are qualified to "protect" our government and way of life. Megalomania is rampant in the NSA. And the entire mechanism of Homeland Security and our intelligence agencies needs to be reviewed by an outside commission of citizens who do not work directly in the field and who have the necessary expertise on the Constitution and the law to assess what they are doing. It is now too centralized. I seriously doubt that the sharing of vital information is more efficient or effective now than it was before 9/11. Not if these flailing accusations against the press are any measure.
This is a very, very serious matter. I don't particularly dislike any individuals in our intelligence, NSA, etc. agencies. I don't know anything about them beyond what I see on C-Span and in the news. What has happened is deeper than personalities. It is a corrosion of democratic values and of respect for the American people in the NSA and intelligence agencies.
Personally, I think that our practice of allowing very wealthy people to immigrate to the US if they can pay the price is far more dangerous and far more likely to be the means through which terrorists enter our country than anything else that we are doing right now. What is to prevent a foreign government intent on destroying our power from sending its millionaires to our shores on the pretense that they want to become Americans or invest in America? That is where the danger to our domestic security lies.
Let's get the pages from the 9/11 Report that Bob Graham has been telling us about published and let's read them before we jump to the conclusion that Snowden and Greenwald and other journalists are a danger to our country. Let us find out how those 9/11 terrorists were brought to this country, supported while here and aided in the US before we start calling journalists accomplices of terror.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)And if you watched the clip of him lying, you may see as I did that he was thinking about what he was saying. It wasn't a slip of the tongue. It was contempt of Congress. And nothing has been done about it. Clapper wasn't even trying to tell the truth. All he had to say was that he wanted to talk about that topic in a private session. But he went straight for contempt. Because he feels contempt maybe.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)Must have some really strong power and lots of info on folks in high places.
J. Edgar Hoover..comes to mind.
blackspade
(10,056 posts)TrollBuster9090
(5,953 posts)tclambert
(11,080 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)They_Live
(3,222 posts)besides "I don't like the sound of that headline."