Obama assigns intelligence director to form “independent” panel on NSA surveillance
Thomas Gaist: ● President Obama on Monday formally assigned Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to form a panel to review National Security Agency (NSA) mass surveillance programs. Obama announced the panel at his press conference on Friday, presenting it as one of a number of steps to “reform” the spying programs exposed by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The fact that the president has chosen Clapper to hand pick the members of the panel exposes as a fraud his pretense of making the programs more “transparent” and insuring against “abuses.” The panel is part of an effort to placate popular opposition to the wholesale, unconstitutional violation of privacy rights and to further institutionalize police state methods of surveillance of the American people. In his press conference, Obama defended programs that include the warrantless seizure of the telephone records of all calls made in the US and the collection of virtually all Internet communications. He outright lied, claiming that these and other forms of electronic snooping do not involve eavesdropping on the content of phone calls or emails. ● The purpose of the panel is to tighten the surveillance programs and make them even more immune to popular inspection.
Stephen Lendman: Obama Appoints Spy Chief to Head NSA Investigation ● You can't make this stuff up. It sounds like a bad film plot. The fix is in. Obama's reform assures business as usual. His promises aren't worth the paper they're written on. He says one thing. He does another. It happens every time. He broke every major promise made. He's a serial liar. He governs lawlessly. He claims Washington doesn't have a domestic spying. NSA monitors everyone everywhere all the time. Obama lied claiming otherwise. ● So-called review groups and independent commissions reflect damage control. They lack credibility. They spurn truth and full disclosure. Insider commissions assure safe results. Manipulated deception substitutes for truth and full disclosure. This time's no different.