Barack Obama is claiming that he was unaware of the extent of the NSAs international spying activities until an internal White House review was conducted this summer. The review revealed that the NSA monitored communications of 35 world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who may have been the target of NSA data snoops as far back as 2002, three years before she became chancellor. However, Obama was actually briefed three years ago and signed off on the effort. Americas allies are making a lot of noise about these revelations, with the French and German governments suggesting that a new international framework be laid out with regards to spying and intelligence collection. Prohibitions on spying among allies and new protocols about the sharing of information are popular solutions, but they are merely political reactions to an age-old practice. In fact, European intelligence helped the NSA collect data. Obama now says he will put an end to spying on allied leaders, but many of the data collection efforts conducted by the NSA are intricately intertwined, so its difficult to determine how long such a policy reversal will take. Finally, back to Obamas blind-eye defense, being completely unaware of what his government is doing has become a tiresome refrain. He didnt know about the NSA. He didnt know about the looming train-wreck rollout of Healthcare.gov. He didnt know about the IRS targeting Tea Party conservatives. He didnt know about security protocols at Benghazi or other embassies. He didnt know about the ATF running guns to Mexico. And so on. We dont buy any of it for a second, but what makes him think being oblivious is a good defense?
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 10:31:46 +0000
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