Obama Will End Mass Collection of Phone Data

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/01/17/obama_will_end_mass_collection_of_phone_data.html

January 17, 2014

Obama Will End Mass Collection of Phone Data


President Obama "said that the U.S. will end its mass collection of American phone data and no longer will house the information inside the government, a victory for civil libertarians that marks the most significant curtailment of U.S. surveillance practices in more than a decade," the Wall Street Journal reports.

"The most immediate changes to spy operations affect a National Security Agency program that collects data on nearly all U.S. phone calls. Under the new presidential directive, intelligence officials are now required to obtain an order from a secret national-security court for government searches of phone data, and the scope of individual searches has been scaled back."

[Th1onein]

1. Sorry, not good enough.

They define "collection" a different way than normal people define it. They actually do collect the information, but only call it "collection" when they open it and read it.

[kelliekat44]

4. Nothing the President will ever be "good enough" for... you know who you are. nt

[Th1onein]

9. No, I don't know.......why don't you tell me?

Clapper went in front of Congress and explained this to us. "Collection" is defined as opening the book in the library, but he admitted, he's already got the library. They are collecting (real definition of the word) EVERYTHING. Is that okay with you? It's not okay with me, and it's violates the Fourth Amendment against unreasonable search and SEIZURE. YOU should be up in arms about this. Why aren't you?

[Savannahmann]

2. The most interesting quote to me was...

"The most immediate changes to spy operations affect a National Security Agency program that collects data on nearly all U.S. phone calls. Under the new presidential directive, intelligence officials are now required to obtain an order from a secret national-security court for government searches of phone data, and the scope of individual searches has been scaled back."

Since Snowden started the reveal, every one of the defenders has typed on this site until their fingers must nearly be bleeding that the collections only happen with a FISA court order, and they only access the information with another court order.

We all knew it was a lie, and I suspect this directive is going to be followed about as diligently, but at least we can stop pretending that everything is legal by the 4th Amend, we now know that it wasn't, and almost certainly isn't. The President just told us it wasn't.

[PowerToThePeople]

3. change

I hate do do this but....

I am about to channel a bit of the devil

[LittleBlue]

5. But Snowden didn't tell us anything we didn't already know!

Or something

This was according to many on here. A few of them also assured me he would be caught, and when some disagreed, they were called naive by these former intelligence "insiders". Not naming names, you know who you are

[former9thward]

6. Thank you Edward Snowden!

[NM_Birder]

7. LOL,,,yeah, and unemployment is under 7%

at least when he got the Nobel Peace Prize, there was still a CHANCE he could have been telling the truth.

Anyone who believes this deserves to be as disappointed as they will be.

[Vattel]

8. Obama will not end mass collection of phone data

from ACLU: "However, the president’s decision not to end bulk collection and retention of all Americans’ data remains highly troubling. The president outlined a process to study the issue further and appears open to alternatives. But the president should end – not mend – the government’s collection and retention of all law-abiding Americans’ data. When the government collects and stores every American’s phone call data, it is engaging in a textbook example of an ‘unreasonable search’ that violates the Constitution. The president’s own review panel recommended that bulk data collection be ended, and the president should accept that recommendation in its entirety.”

https://www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-comment-presidents-nsa-speech