Obama Administration confirms warrantless searches of Americans

Remember when searching a potential terrorist's library records meant George W. Bush was shredding the Constitution?

Yeah, me neither.

Here comes Barack Obama, openly admitting he's listening to our phone calls, reading our emails, tracking our cell phones, and scanning our license plates. All without a warrant. Not even one of those super-secret fig-leaf warrants from a FISA court. And nobody says "boo," because he's The One, and he craps unicorns or something.

Obama lied? Say it ain't so!

But it's OK, they investigated themselves and decided they did nothing wrong.

Wyden has pressed the administration on whether these searches on Americans have occurred. In a March 28 letter to Wyden, James Clapper, the government's top intelligence official, said the NSA has searched for Americans' communications within information it collected when it targeted foreigners located outside the U.S. In his letter, Clapper also pointed to a declassified document released last August that also acknowledged the use of such searches and stated that these searches were reviewed, and there was no finding of wrongdoing. It was unclear how often these searches are conducted.

Trust them, their motives are pure! Even if the Fourth Amendment says they gotta sell it to the judge first.

"If a government agency thinks that a particular American is engaged in terrorism or espionage, the Fourth Amendment requires that the government secure a warrant or emergency authorization before monitoring his or her communications," Wyden and Udall said.

Oh, c'mon, those kind of legal technicalities only apply when a Republican is president. Don't you guys watch MSNBC?

The Obama administration contends the searches are legal because they are searching information they lawfully obtained.

Uh huh. And once they've "obtained" it, they'd never, ever turn over potentially juicy tidbits to say the IRS, or the EPA, right? Nah, that would be illegal.

Posted at 10:52 by Chris Wysocki   [/obama_watch]   Comments | Perm Link |
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