America’s Secret 4th Branch of Government: The NSA kept even Obama in the Dark

[unhappycamper]

http://www.juancole.com/2013/10/americas-branch-government.html

America’s Secret 4th Branch of Government: The NSA kept even Obama in the Dark
Posted on 10/28/2013 by Juan Cole

The revelation from the Snowden Papers that the National Security Agency had German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s personal cell phone under surveillance has produced a central fallout. Dueling leaks over the international embarrassment have forced the White House to a key admission: President Barack Obama did not know what the NSA was up to.

Ever since the Snowden revelations of the massive, world-girdling extent of NSA electronic surveillance surfaced, I have been wondering two things: Did they tell Obama about it when they took office in 2009? And, do they have something on Obama?

Outgoing NSA head Keith Alexander or his circle leaked to German tabloid Bild am Sonntag that Alexander had told Obama about the tap on Merkel’s personal phone in 2010 and that Obama asked for more information on Merkel at that time.

DeutscheWelle reports:

That leak forced the White House (and the NSA) to deny the allegation and to see Alexander his leak and raise the ante.

[KansDem]

1. Well, if the President doesn't know about this evesdropping...

...then who the Hell is using the information?

Corporate espionage? CIA Black Ops? Who?

And with revelations such as this one (and many others), I find it difficult to believe 9/11 was a "complete surprise."

[newfie11]

2. +1. Nt

[tblue37]

4. The BFEE, perhaps, with its many ties to the CIA. nt

[bemildred]

3. So we DO have a Potemkin Government, just like the crazies have been saying all this time. nt

[jakeXT]

5. You mean like Russ Tice ?

Tice claimed that he held NSA wiretap orders targeting numerous members of the U.S. government, including one for a young senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

"In the summer of 2004, one of the papers that I held in my hand was to wiretap a bunch of numbers associated with a forty-some-year-old senator from Illinois. You wouldn't happen to know where that guy lives now would you? It's a big White House in Washington D.C. That's who the NSA went after. That's the President of the United States now."

Tice added that he also saw orders to spy on Hillary Clinton, Senators John McCain and Diane Feinstein, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, Gen. David Petraeus, and a current Supreme Court Justice.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-nsa-spied-on-barack-obama-2004-russ-tice-2013-6

[bemildred]

6. It doesn't seem to be clear who is saying things, but in this case it's Juan Cole.

I haven't looked into Mr. Tice much, though he pops up now and then. There is a long list of Tices anyway, so its silly to focus on one.

[jakeXT]

7. Seems to be a very naive person. I only remember his position on Libya before the kinetic action /nt

[bemildred]

8. No, I wouldn't believe be anything just on Cole's say so.

He's not a reliable narrator, he a commentator. But he has things to say at times too. He speaks for a certain point of view, and coherently.

Most people are very naive. I can be very naive. So can you.