Court order to Verizon to turn over mass data to the NSA

[bu villain]

The NSA falls under the Executive branch, and Congress is already setting up hearings for next week on it.
FBI Direct Robert Mueller will be asked about the matter, when he appears next week before the House Judiciary Committee.
The report will also be the subject of an upcoming classified briefing by Attorney General Eric Holder to the Senate Appropriations Committee. Its chairman, Sen. Barbara Mikulski, is calling for a similar closed-door briefing for the entire U.S. Senate.

The thing is, what they did is probably completely legal under the PATRIOT act. Now just because it is legal doesn't mean it is ethical which is why I do believe the executive branch deserves some of the blame. But congress passed the act which allowed this unethical behavior. They need to be held responsible too and I don't see anyone in here directing their anger towards their elected representative who helped make this overreach possible in the first place.

[David88vert]

The thing is, what they did is probably completely legal under the PATRIOT act. Now just because it is legal doesn't mean it is ethical which is why I do believe the executive branch deserves some of the blame. But congress passed the act which allowed this unethical behavior. They need to be held responsible too and I don't see anyone in here directing their anger towards their elected representative who helped make this overreach possible in the first place.

It is legal; however, it was misrepresented multiple times to Congress including recently. Watch the video on the ABC News page, and you can see for yourself how Congress was lied to concerning how it would be implemented.



As for blank's saying that the buck doesn't stop with the President, Obama DISAGREES with blank. He defended his position on it today:
Obama: ‘Nobody Is Listening to Your Phone Calls’ - ABC News

He is correct that no one is listening to the actual call - that would take too long. The metadata that he is referring to for phone calls is correct; however, it is not the same for internet communications and email.

[bu villain]

It is legal; however, it was misrepresented multiple times to Congress including recently. Watch the video on the ABC News page, and you can see for yourself how Congress was lied to concerning how it would be implemented.

Again, the executive branch deserves some anger but I don't think congress is off the hook because the executive branch promised to not use all the overreaching authority congress gave to them. Naivety on Congress's part is not a good enough excuse.

[David88vert]

Again, the executive branch deserves some anger but I don't think congress is off the hook because the executive branch promised to not use all the overreaching authority congress gave to them. Naivety on Congress's part is not a good enough excuse.

I agree with you on this, if Congress had actually thought this through, they would have identified the probable abuse of power. After all, it was mentioned as a distinct probability for days when they first started discussing the implementation of the plan.