Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), in a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing today, presents succinctly and forcefully the case that senior officials overseeing the US government’s mass spying program have relied on “secret interpretations of the law” and “years of misleading and deceptive statements…to the American people.” Wyden proceeds to question witnesses James R. Clapper, John O. Brennan, and James B. Comey, Jr. — the directors, respectively, of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, and Federal Bureau of Investigation — regarding the mass spying and the “culture of misinformation” surrounding it. read on...
There is nothing so dangerous as when Washington starts "reforming" something. Usually it means that despite best obfuscation efforts the administration or Congress has been caught doing something -- or not doing something -- sufficiently outrageous to create a public stir.
Once caught, said government body does not simply cease and desist or make good on its mistake. Instead, a commission is formed made up of current and former government officials and other Washington insiders, an expensive study is funded revealing that the problem was simply not enough oversight (i.e. government workers on the payroll), and a grand but confusing multi-part scheme with everything thrown in but the kitchen sink is implemented to great fanfare and media praise. The impression is left that the problem has been solved. Until the next time. read on...
