Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance

Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by cmdkeen on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @05:36AM (#10545896)

Except this is Obama at the peak of his hope and change moment, he'd just been comprehensively elected as an alternative to the Bush years. This was the perfect opportunity to essentially blame even more things on Bush and even cement his position, this was an opportunity to bury the GOP if he had broken this news. Ironically he was in a position to deserve the Nobel Peace Prize if he had taken action against this, Guantanamo and the CIA torture programme.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by icegreentea on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @06:20AM (#10546039)

Obama didn't have infinite political capital. We was dealing with some pretty heavy things in the aftermath of the stock market crash - stuff that was potentially alienating his own base, while also trying to push through his own legacy change (Obamacare). All of this through his peak popularity. If he had tried to squash the wiretapping then, it likely would have overextended him and saw his health care reforms squashed.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by cryoshon on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @09:54AM (#10546918)

I guess maybe this is an unreasonable comment I'm going to make, but:

Yeah, Obama was low on political capital because he shot most of his wad at Obamacare, which didn't get as far as he wanted it, meaning that he loses political capital for losing relative to his goals. In this weak position, the thing to do is rally more political capital from the base... which he never did.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by ikeboy on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @08:19AM (#10546502)

Didn't he stop the torture program?

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by cmdkeen on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @08:53AM (#10546629)

But that's as far as he went. He's hardly been shouting from the rafters about how America should not be a country which tortures, and especially in the light of the Congressional findings re the CIA's activities I'm amazed there haven't been prosecutions. Honestly McCain, on this particular issue, would have been a better president.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by ikeboy on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @09:45AM (#10546878)

Were there any smoking guns in the Congressional report? I don't recall any, but I didn't read the whole thing or look too much into it at the time.

I also don't think we should retroactively punish behavior that they thought was legal and proper at the time. That seems like a bad precedent.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by cmdkeen on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @10:43AM (#10547171)

'The CIA "provided inaccurate information to the White House, Congress, the Justice Department, the CIA inspector general, the media and the American public" about the "brutal" interrogation techniques it used on terrorism suspects, a long-held Senate intelligence committee report finds.' http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/12/09/369562383/...

"I was just following orders" didn't cut it at Nuremberg either. The courts should have been allowed to test whether what they were doing was illegal or not, if it was legal then it is "just" a moral stain on the soul of America.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by ikeboy on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @01:22PM (#10548207)

A Nazi comparison? Really? You think people who tortured terrorists because they believed (even if you don't) it would prevent more attacks are in the same reference class as people who tortured and killed innocent people for far less noble reasons?

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by cmdkeen on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @02:45PM (#10548768)

Yep - during a time of war people are torturing prisoners, sometimes to death. We executed people for that. People who said they thought what they were doing was justified and / or legal.

I'm sorry but the CIA torturers are war criminals, it doesn't matter about the relative aspect of it - there absolutes.

For the sake of a few thousand people, a fraction of those killed in gun violence for instance, the USA sacrificed any claim to moral superiority and probably created many more terrorists than were ever stopped. Home of the brave indeed. I'm British, in the military and a massive ally of the USA, but on this issue the lack of contrition exhibited is shameful.

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Re:Why Obama did not stop NSA domestic surveillance by cryoshon on Wednesday November 11, 2015 @09:46AM (#10546881)

He stopped the prosecution of torturers. Don't give him credit where a coverup was intended.

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