White House, NSA Oppose Congressional Curbs On Data Mining

Protecting your National Surveillance State:

In a sign of growing concern over Congress’s reaction to the revelations of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, the White House publicly announced its opposition to a House push to block the spy agency’s bulk collection of ordinary Americans’ phone records on Tuesday.

Reacting to a defense appropriations amendment sponsored by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) to curb the NSA’s vast program of collecting and storing phone records, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, “We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our Intelligence Community’s counterterrorism tools.

“This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process,” Carney continued in a statement.

The White House rarely comments on an amendment before it reaches the floor of even one chamber of Congress. That, coupled with an emergency briefing NSA Director Keith Alexander held for members of Congress on Tuesday, appears to show that senior administration officials are seriously worried about the possibility of congressional action to stop the mass domestic surveillance.

By: dave-dr-gonzo

David Hirsch, a.k.a. Dave "Doctor" Gonzo*, is a renegade record producer, video producer, writer, reformed corporate shill, and still-registered lobbyist for non-one-percenter performing artists and musicians. He lives in a heavily fortified compound in one of Manhattan's less trendy neighborhoods.

* Hirsch is the third person to use the pseudonym, a not-so-veiled tribute to journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson, with the permission of his predecessors Gene Gaudette of American Politics Journal (currently webmaster and chief bottlewasher at Liberaland) and Stephen Meese at Smashmouth Politics.