NSA is circling its wagons, in open defiance of Congressional concerns.

[99th_Monkey]

NSA's Keith Alexander Calls Emergency Private Briefing To Lobby Against Justin Amash Amendment Curtailing Its Power
Posted: 07/23/2013 10:00 am EDT | Updated: 07/23/2013 1:23 pm EDT

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency called for a "top secret" meeting with members of the House on Tuesday to lobby against the first House amendment to challenge the agency's authority to cull broad swaths of communications data, according to an invitation circulated in Congress.

The amendment was authored by Rep. Justin Amash, a libertarian Republican from Michigan, and cosponsored by former chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and liberal Michigan Democratic Rep. John Conyers. The House ruled the amendment in order on Monday, and it is expected to get a vote sometime this week.

NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander scheduled a last-minute, members-only briefing in response to the amendment, according to an invitation distributed to members of Congress this morning and forwarded to HuffPost. "In advance of anticipated action on amendments to the DoD Appropriations bill, Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of the House Intelligence Committee invites your Member to attend a question and answer session with General Keith B. Alexander of the National Security Agency," reads the invitation.

The invitation warned members that they could not share what they learned with their constituents or others. "The briefing will be held at the Top Secret/SCI level and will be strictly Members-Only," reads the invite.

The Amash amendment would put the House on record when it comes to NSA snooping. The measure, which would be attached to the Pentagon's spending bill, "ends authority for the blanket collection of records under the Patriot Act" and "bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215."

The section of the Patriot Act that Amash is targeting was the subject of the first piece in The Guardian about NSA leaker Edward Snowden's revelations. A secret intelligence court has interpreted the law to allow the NSA to collect hundreds of millions of records on every American phone call under the theory that such records might be useful in future terrorism investigations. The intelligence community has claimed that the law is useful in thwarting potential terrorist incidents.

But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee with access to classified details about the program, said there is no evidence that the data collection had been directly responsible for stopping any single plot. Civil libertarians, meanwhile, are aghast at the NSA's broad interpretation of the law, and even the bill's author said he was surprised at how it is being used.

Just seven months ago the House and Senate approved a military spending bill that reauthorized the NSA's extensive foreign surveillance operations, and in 2011 the Patriot Act was reauthorized by broad margins with bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. But Amash's amendment could capitalize on a new awareness of the scope of the intelligence community's activities.

The amendment could draw support from both Democrats and Republicans. Just how much is uncertain -- this is the House's first up-or-down vote on the NSA's domestic surveillance activities since Snowden made his revelations.

"This is the real deal: It's our first chance to roll back the NSA's spying regime, and we don't know when we'll have another one like it," said David Segal, executive director of Demand Progress, a progressive policy group. "To invoke that expert on surveillance George W. Bush: After this vote we'll finally know who is with us in the cause to protect civil rights -- and who is against us."

Speaking at an event at the Center for American Progress on domestic data collection Tuesday, Wyden said that he hasn't read Amash's amendment but was encouraged by its progress.

"The fact that this has made it to the floor of the House of Representatives is unquestionably good," he said. "It is another step, as I've outlined, in the march to a real debate. We wouldn't have had that seven, eight weeks ago."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/23/keith-alexander-justin-amash_n_3639329.html

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. Like a rabid, cornered wild animal, it has several instinctive choices.

Flight (never gonna happen)
Fright (their current stance)
Fight (what they will end up doing)

[zeemike]

27. Or one more

Blackmail
Drag out the evidence of the congressmen diddling the babysitter or other embarrassing things they said in their phone conversations or the porn they looked at on the inertube...that is when they win the fight

[Catherina]

2. Alexander needs to be thrown in Guantanamo as an enemy of the state n/t

[kentuck]

3. I agree.

There is no way in hell anyone in his position should serve for more than 4 years. There is too much danger of becoming too deeply embedded and ingrained within a system that needs new eyes and fresh thinking at all times. Obama should have gotten rid of him already.

[99th_Monkey]

4. One can only imagine what kind of ugly threats, intimidation, etc. went down

at this "top secret" meeting.

But for now, the wheel is still in spin mode. God/dess' speed to those
brave members of Congress willing to stand up to this unconstitutional
crap.

[dkf]

10. Next comes the one on one meeting where reps find out what the NSA has on them.

[99th_Monkey]

14. Pics w/ circles and arrows.

That outrageously off-color joke that CongressPerson X tweeted.

Copies of receipts for that porn site ^^^^^^ they frequented.

Yes, the one-on-one .. and that's if they're lucky. The
not so lucky, just wake up and see it all on the front page in the
morning.

[Divernan]

26. Just like J.Edgar Hoover used to do with the dirt he dug up on family members as well.

Example: Hoover's snoopers found out that a white Congressman's wife had an affair with a black man before they married. An agent would show up and advise the Congressman that the FBI had come across this information and Mr. Hoover thought the Congressman would want to know that the FBI had this information. Or that a congressman's unwed, teenage daughter went to Switzerland for an abortion. This was at a time in our history when such information would cost a congressman his next election.
Depending on how racist/conservative/religious a congressional district is, that type of info could still cost someone re-election.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. Amen to that.

[JDPriestly]

23. The NSA is supposed to be subordinate to the government of the people.

We shall see what happens.

The entire surveillance and collection of metadata program is a very quiet military coup if you think of it in terms of history.

They should be focusing on terrorists, not just collecting metadata willy-nilly.

As I pointed out yesterday, no private company would waste their money on such a program. There is no profit in it for anyone.

Did you read the article in WIRED magazine on "Emperor Alexander." "Whatever Keith wants, Keith gets."

[snappyturtle]

5. If what Wyden says is true that the data collection has failed to

yield stoppage of not even one terrorist plot what will the gist of the
NSA's persausion to the members only secret meeting? Could he reveal
their dossiers? Naw....he wouldn't do that.

[99th_Monkey]

7. No. Never. They wouldn't do that.. That would be blackmail.

actually, yes.

That's most likely going to be NSA's wild-card ace-in-the-hole, used
to "get it's way" when ever it is challenged by ANY ONE.

[snappyturtle]

12. I was being sarcastic too....but I couldn't figure out how

they can justify the program(s) if they aren't doing what we've been
fed to believe they do. Sometimes I think I live in a comic book.

[Fuddnik]

22. Because what they're really meant to do is too terrifying.

We're the targets.

[HumansAndResources]

37. Yes, See "TSA"

They have the same "Zero Hits" record, and are equally horrifying, in their own way. A government really doesn't get more debasing to its citizens than performing strip searches - "virtual" or otherwise.

Of course, our wonderful supreme court just ruled that an unpaid parking-fine is grounds for an "up close and personal" strip search for "inmate safety."

[cantbeserious]

8. Let's Hope Those Wagons Break Some Wheels

eom

[randome]

9. Lobbying and talking is the same as 'defiance'? LOL!

Now if they decide the metadata collection serves no purpose, they should stop collecting it. No problem here. But to see this as some kind of 'revolt' against the NSA shows how small the idea of 'revolution' is to some.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[99th_Monkey]

11. TOP SECRET meetings, Secret proceedings, Secret, Secret, Secret

EVERY ONE KNOWS this is complete bullshit, used to blackmail, extort, threaten,
and/or bribe members of Congress to go "all in" for the 100% Saturation Surveillance
State, "or else".

Is this the kind of governing you think is appropriate for America? Please show me
in the US Constitution where this is legal?

[randome]

13. 'Everyone knows'? Right, right, the NSA has the goods on everyone.

Then why are they having this debate? Why did the NSA allow these proposed changes to even get off the ground?

You may not like it but there are legitimate reasons for national security briefings to be private. We could use less secrecy, sure, but that's not the same as saying every function of the government and of law enforcement needs to be approved by 300 million people.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]I'm always right. When I'm wrong I admit it.
So then I'm right about being wrong.[/center][/font][hr]

[99th_Monkey]

16. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. <-- An axiomatic truism

THAT is when the rats and roaches run for cover, and not one
minute sooner.

On edit, I notice there is no reference in your post to any part
of the US Constitution that supports hyper-secrecy, spying on
ALL citizens, etc.

[JDPriestly]

35. There can be many reasons for secrecy in government.

For example, in a time of warfare, information on military plans are usually secret. But another reason for secrecy is less legitimate, and that is spying on one's own population when your country claims to be a democracy.

The NSA program is wrong and incompatible with democracy or with representative government of any kind because knowledge is power, and this spying program gives an elite group within the NSA knowledge about the personal lives of all Americans, including journalists and other members of the government including members of Congress and the judiciary.

Thus, a small elite within the NSA has, through its superior knowledge about others, set itself above all others, taken a position of power over others although that elite does not answer directly to the people.

That is why this program violates the Constitution in my view. The FISA Court is equally incompatible with democracy or representative government because of its secrecy. The Constitution states that we should have public trials. In theory, the FISA Court is not considering criminal matters, but the extent of this surveillance places that theoretical assumption in question. This comprehensive surveillance appears to treat all of us like criminals.

[ancianita]

15. Totally with you on this. It's for public consumption to give the appearance of integrity.

[Maedhros]

18. C'mon, Monkey! Everyone knows there's nothing wrong with secret meetings to decide policy!

Remember when Cheney met with the energy industry behind closed doors prior to launching the invasion of Iraq? Nothing bad came of that!

Stop complaining. When the government threatens your basic civil liberties just lie back, close your eyes and think of Freedom...

[Bonhomme Richard]

17. The NSA is going to show them all the dirt they have on.......

them.
If they want to keep that stuff secret...well?

[99th_Monkey]

19. Exactly. That is the all-too-obvious sub-text to this 'top secret lobbying' eom

[ancianita]

20. Peachy. Let's trust the National 'Seems' Agency's emergency briefing as much as

they've ever trusted us in this 'battleground' country. Because those who've actually surveilled without governmental oversight for the last fifteen years -- and by doing so wrote the book on cynical secrecy and distrust -- can now be trusted as serious when they call an 'emergency briefing.'

And then there's the GOP's opposition. Yeah, that just seamlessly fits with everything else they've done for us all to protect our constitutional rights.

Contingency reinforcement studies show that for every negative event perpetrated on a subject, that subject must then experience fifteen positive events that would rebuild his/her trust. I wouldn't say that we have been contingency-reinforced, but for me, there will have to be a shutdown of the entire black budget, and the provable rescinding of at least 500,000 people's security clearances in this country before I take anything these people say or do seriously.

But I'd rather be a wrong pessimist than a wrong optimist.

[MsPithy]

21. Didn't any of these congresspeople take the oath of office

that says something about supporting and defending the Constitution?

What about Alexander?

[L0oniX]

24. LOL ... Congressional concerns = dog and pony show. n/t

[99th_Monkey]

25. A "Punch & Judy Show" <-- Dennis Kucinich called it ... eom

[grasswire]

28. the intel elites ARE running the country

Just as the whistleblowers say.

Alexander is more powerful than POTUS at this time.

[99th_Monkey]

29. Damn!

I want like crazy to disagree with you, because what you are saying
is downright depressing ... but I. can. not. disagree. with. you.

[grasswire]

30. I know.

I was shocked when I realized it too. That Wired article about Emperor Keith Alexander set off shock waves for me.

A nightmare scenario straight from B-movie Hollywood.

[99th_Monkey]

31. I guess the good news is, "the Wheel is still in spin"

to quote Bobby Dylan.

which I take to mean that it's not over til it's over, no matter
how depressing it may appear, that I need to keep the faith, to
pay close attention, to seek opportunities to make some important
differences, etc.

Timing.

[JDPriestly]

36. Great article -- Wired.

[WillyT]

32. HUGE K & R !!!

[awoke_in_2003]

33. They are defying John Conyers?...

Expect a strongly worded letter.

[99th_Monkey]

34. no doubt such a letter is in the works

John has a penchant for those,

follow-up? not so much.