Minotaur
Governor
Obama version utilizing court tested search warrants and under FISA rules of warrants and subpoenas directly related to investigation of terrrorists:
"BERLIN - Trying to tamp down concerns about government over-reach, President Barack Obama on Wednesday defended U.S. Internet and phone surveillance programs as narrowly targeted efforts that have saved lives and thwarted at least 50 terror threats.
"This is not a situation in which we are rifling through ordinary emails" of huge numbers of citizens in the United States or elsewhere, the president declared during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He called it as a "circumscribed, narrow" surveillance program.
"Lives have been saved," Obama said, adding that the program has been closely supervised by the courts to ensure that any encroachment of privacy is strictly limited.
Merkel, for her part, said it was important to continue debate about how to strike "an equitable balance" between providing security and protecting personal freedoms.
"There has to be proportionality," she said. She added that their discussion on the matter Wednesday was "an important first step" over striking a balance."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/obamas-berlin-speech-expectations-big-shoes-fill-including-062502665.html
PRISM 2001 - 2007 minus non-court test, oversight, FISA, Subpoena, Warrants monitoring of all US callers utilizing keywords:
"The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy (AKA "Warrantless Wiretapping") concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the war on terror. Under this program, referred to by the Bush administration as the "terrorist surveillance program", part of the broader President's Surveillance Program, the NSA was authorized by executive order to monitor, without search warrants, the phone calls, Internet activity (Web, e-mail, etc.), text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S. Critics, however, claimed that it was in an effort to attempt to silence critics of the Bush Administration and their handling of several hot button issues during its tenure. Under public pressure, the Bush administration ceased the warrantless wiretapping program in January 2007 and returned review of surveillance to the FISA court.[2] Subsequently, in 2008 Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which relaxed some of the original FISA court requirements.
During the Obama Administration, the NSA has officially continued operating under the new FISA guidelines.[3] However, in April 2009 officials at the United States Department of Justice acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications in excess of the FISA court's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy
Funny we get outraged at what we already know when it is court approved and nary a memory of the abuse when it actually was an abuse. One thing I do feel is important to know (thanks to Julie) is that though the real abuse was never really fully answered Constitutionally that I am aware of, during the Bush abuse of PRISM Congress did place restrictions on it AFTER Bush handed it back over to NSA FISA rules of legality before any ruling on Constitutionality was made and that may be why it stopped short of a actual ruling.
The capability of PRISM was known in Clinton's term. Clinton and Obama have never tested it in such a reckless manner of unlimited free for all monitoring as the AT&T secret rooms did. So the question is did the Congressional re-do fix it to protect citizens from warrantless snooping? I think that the answer is yes but it is up to you to do your homework and draw whatever conclusion you may draw.
"BERLIN - Trying to tamp down concerns about government over-reach, President Barack Obama on Wednesday defended U.S. Internet and phone surveillance programs as narrowly targeted efforts that have saved lives and thwarted at least 50 terror threats.
"This is not a situation in which we are rifling through ordinary emails" of huge numbers of citizens in the United States or elsewhere, the president declared during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He called it as a "circumscribed, narrow" surveillance program.
"Lives have been saved," Obama said, adding that the program has been closely supervised by the courts to ensure that any encroachment of privacy is strictly limited.
Merkel, for her part, said it was important to continue debate about how to strike "an equitable balance" between providing security and protecting personal freedoms.
"There has to be proportionality," she said. She added that their discussion on the matter Wednesday was "an important first step" over striking a balance."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/obamas-berlin-speech-expectations-big-shoes-fill-including-062502665.html
PRISM 2001 - 2007 minus non-court test, oversight, FISA, Subpoena, Warrants monitoring of all US callers utilizing keywords:
"The NSA warrantless surveillance controversy (AKA "Warrantless Wiretapping") concerns surveillance of persons within the United States during the collection of foreign intelligence by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) as part of the war on terror. Under this program, referred to by the Bush administration as the "terrorist surveillance program", part of the broader President's Surveillance Program, the NSA was authorized by executive order to monitor, without search warrants, the phone calls, Internet activity (Web, e-mail, etc.), text messaging, and other communication involving any party believed by the NSA to be outside the U.S., even if the other end of the communication lies within the U.S. Critics, however, claimed that it was in an effort to attempt to silence critics of the Bush Administration and their handling of several hot button issues during its tenure. Under public pressure, the Bush administration ceased the warrantless wiretapping program in January 2007 and returned review of surveillance to the FISA court.[2] Subsequently, in 2008 Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which relaxed some of the original FISA court requirements.
During the Obama Administration, the NSA has officially continued operating under the new FISA guidelines.[3] However, in April 2009 officials at the United States Department of Justice acknowledged that the NSA had engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications in excess of the FISA court's authority, but claimed that the acts were unintentional and had since been rectified."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSA_warrantless_surveillance_controversy
Funny we get outraged at what we already know when it is court approved and nary a memory of the abuse when it actually was an abuse. One thing I do feel is important to know (thanks to Julie) is that though the real abuse was never really fully answered Constitutionally that I am aware of, during the Bush abuse of PRISM Congress did place restrictions on it AFTER Bush handed it back over to NSA FISA rules of legality before any ruling on Constitutionality was made and that may be why it stopped short of a actual ruling.
The capability of PRISM was known in Clinton's term. Clinton and Obama have never tested it in such a reckless manner of unlimited free for all monitoring as the AT&T secret rooms did. So the question is did the Congressional re-do fix it to protect citizens from warrantless snooping? I think that the answer is yes but it is up to you to do your homework and draw whatever conclusion you may draw.
