Snowden: NSA snoops on U.S. phone calls without warrants

Re:Snowden: NSA snoops on U.S. phone calls without warrants by eli on Monday June 17, 2013 @06:15PM (#5896332)

Your original claim -- the one in that's still the headline of the linked HN post -- is that the NSA admitted it listens to phone calls without a warrant. I don't want to get into a linguistics debate, but I think this has indeed been refuted. It's certainly unsubstantiated. I mean, that's why you changed the headline of your article on CNet, right?

For the rest, I don't see how it's possible to prove the negative: that the NSA isn't doing what you claim in your piece... but if the only evidence they are is second-hand from what Rep. Nadler says he heard in a secret hearing... and now he says he was wrong... Well, seems awfully weak to me.

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Re:Snowden: NSA snoops on U.S. phone calls without warrants by wallio on Monday June 17, 2013 @08:02PM (#5896751)

The story was that they admitted this in a "secret briefing". I'm not sure if denying something in public refutes what you said in private.

Nadler seemed pretty sure on Thursday at the Committee meeting and when interviewed by CNET over the weekend but has now changed his story. The NSA released a very strangely worded denial. And in today's Q&A Snowden says this is exactly how it happens.

Not sure what to make of all this but is seems like we have been given a peek behind the curtain but not a long enough gaze to see exactly what is going on.

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Re:Snowden: NSA snoops on U.S. phone calls without warrants by eli on Monday June 17, 2013 @08:43PM (#5896886)

AFAIK, Rep. Nadler was not interviewed by CNET for the story and it was based entirely on the reporter's interpretation of his public remarks. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.) I think there's a good chance Rep. Nadler did not change his position and was simply misinterpreted. If you watch the video[0] of the exchange, it definitely seems like at least one of them is confused about what they're talking about.

Regardless, I think the implication that somebody must have "gotten to" Congressman Nadler and therefore we should continue to believe what we thought he said earlier rather than what he's saying unambiguously now is totally ridiculous.

[0] http://www.c-spanvideo.org/clip/4456140 (it's right near the start).

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Re:Snowden: NSA snoops on U.S. phone calls without warrants by brown9-2 on Tuesday June 18, 2013 @08:15AM (#5898683)

No, the story was that Rep. Nadler said something confusing and ambiguous in a public hearing that referred to a secret briefing and that some reporters ran with the statements and assumed the worst.

For what it's worth, from what I've seen of Rep. Nadler in the past, he doesn't seem like the kind of craven politician who would either equivocate or be scared into submission.

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