Coincidence? Obama expanded government's surveillance powers in his last days before leaving office.
51 2017-02-16 by rkotarek
From the New York Times - Obama's “new rules significantly relax longstanding limits on what the N.S.A. may do with the information gathered by its most powerful surveillance operations, which are largely unregulated by American wiretapping laws. These include collecting satellite transmissions, phone calls and emails that cross network switches abroad, and messages between people abroad that cross domestic network switches."
Original Executive Order docs: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3283349-Raw-12333-surveillance-sharing-guidelines.html
14 comments
n/a aleister 2017-02-16
There are no coincidences.
n/a Reign_Wilson 2017-02-16
How does Obama benefit?
n/a bobluvsbananas 2017-02-16
You're assuming he's doing it for himself as opposed to being a useful idiot for our wonderfully unelected intelligence officials and future puppet administrations.
n/a Reign_Wilson 2017-02-16
Why would Obama grant any favors for the intelligence community after the election?
n/a PM_ME_UR_GLIPGLOPS 2017-02-16
To get future helpful people kicked out?
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
Obama knew about the Russian ties well before the election; even other countries have been monitoring the situation. Obama left the NSA the tools necessary to deal with the investigation.
n/a rkotarek 2017-02-16
Still waiting on any evidence whatsoever about these "Russian ties". So far we have lots of anonymous sources, classified intelligence blah blah blah. This whole entire theory has ZERO substantiating evidence.
n/a LegDay2017 2017-02-16
Even if it was proven, so what? Russia isn't so bad. Whats the big deal? Other countries, like Israel, often spy on us all the time. So that's okay, but Russia isn't?
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
No, it is most definitely not okay when Israel spies on us. And just like Israel is breaking a treaty by occupying Palestinian owned land, Russia broke a treaty when they invaded Crimea. We should seek peace with Russia. Cautiously. Not fawning over how "great" they are or ignoring where huge conflicts of interest lie for our leader.
n/a LegDay2017 2017-02-16
The people of Crimea voted for Russia. There was no invasion.
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
Riiiight. There were soldiers with unmarked uniforms and mysteriously appearing armored tanks. Oh, and Trump's man Paul Manafort working to install Russia's man into power. That's all...nothing to see here.
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
Google Trump, Deutchse Bank, and Russian money laundering. Google John Kelley and Russia. Read a few serious investigative pieces. I dare you. This all really isn't even "new" news.
n/a rkotarek 2017-02-16
Took your advice, googled "Trump Deutchse Bank".. clicked the first thing that came up which was an article from the ultra-liberal Guardian who I'm sure would love nothing more than to expose every skeleton in trumps closet.
The title - Deutsche Bank examined Donald Trump's account for Russia links
What did they find? "The internal review found no evidence of any Russia link".... yawn.
Maybe there is one, though.. who knows? I should have been more specific because "ties" or "links" with Russia is pretty vague and honestly no big deal on its face. I want to see evidence that Russia was responsible for the DNC/Podesta hacks, because they were released by Wikileaks who has vehemently denied that the Russian state has sourced them with any documents.. and if it is proven that Russia was behind the hack, then I need proof of collusion with Trump. Without those two things, there is no story.
Oh and also, exit polling data showed that those hacks really didnt have an effect on the election outcome.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/feb/16/deutsche-bank-examined-trump-account-for-russia-links
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/8/23/1563073/-How-Far-Into-Trump-Are-The-Russians and http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/29/deutsche-banks-10-billion-scandal Deutsche Bank itself has realized it cannot be trusted to perform an internal investigation of Trump and its' money laundering scandal and has called for an independent review. If these two sources aren't right-wing enough for you simply check their sources. Infowars and Breitbart certainly aren't going to cover this.
n/a rkotarek 2017-02-16
Interesting.. There's definitely smoke there so I'm interested to see what else is revealed. Still a lot of speculation involved... while there is no speculation about the vast expansion of the scope and power of the surveillance state under Bush and Obama. Much bigger implications than even the worst speculative ramifications of this whole Russia-Trump theory.
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
I am more cynical. I firmly believe the surveillance state will continue to be developed. Since 9/11, and the 24 hour news insanity where news has been translated by various talking heads and you get opinions instead of facts (thank you MSM, I'll draw my own conclusions if you don't mind) it's been a perfect set-up. Now, all journalism is suspect, and all information easily dismissed. The privacy and autonomy we once enjoyed has vanished with barely whimper of protest. Net neutrality, our last bastion of free speech, is on the chopping block of corporate control. Controlling resistance means controlling information and monitoring citizens. The New Order will not be partisan and will require cooperation between US and Russia. Side note: Both countries are not coincidentally controlled by the recently reconciled Catholic Church- The Vatican and the Russian Orthodox Church. A new EO gives churches the right to political participation, and the Catholic Church is the wealthiest organization on earth.
n/a bobluvsbananas 2017-02-16
You're assuming he's doing it for himself as opposed to being a useful idiot for our wonderfully unelected intelligence officials and future puppet administrations.
n/a sciencesez 2017-02-16
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/8/23/1563073/-How-Far-Into-Trump-Are-The-Russians and http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/29/deutsche-banks-10-billion-scandal Deutsche Bank itself has realized it cannot be trusted to perform an internal investigation of Trump and its' money laundering scandal and has called for an independent review. If these two sources aren't right-wing enough for you simply check their sources. Infowars and Breitbart certainly aren't going to cover this.