The NSA Even Spies on Obama and Congress

Even Congress and Dear Leader get cyber stalked…

From the National Journal.

The National Security Agency “probably” collects phone records of members of Congress and their staffs, a senior Justice Department official conceded Tuesday.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole buckled under questioning from multiple lawmakers during a House Judiciary Committee hearing reviewing proposals to reform the NSA’s surveillance activity.

……Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican,…put the question to Cole.

“Mr. Cole, do you collect 202, 225, and four digits afterwards?” Issa asked, referring to the prefixes used to call congressional offices.

“We probably do, Mr. Congressman,” Cole responded. “But we’re not allowed to look at any of those, however, unless we have reasonable, articulable suspicion that those numbers are related to a known terrorist threat.”

While the admission is hardly surprising, given that the raison d’être of the NSA’s sweeps is to collect data of virtually all Americans, it may mark the first time the government has responded so directly to the question.

……Several members of Congress have recently agitated to know whether their phone records are included in the NSA’s sweeping data grabs.

My, my. Looks like Barky gets his privacy invaded, too.

A US official acknowledged Tuesday that the NSA likely scoops up data on congressional phone communications, but stopped short of saying whether such action extends to calls made by Barack Obama.

The tense exchange occurred during a hearing on the status of the administration’s reforms of the secret, bulk data collection program exposed last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Deputy Attorney General James Cole, testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, hesitated when asked whether the controversial NSA program that gathers the numbers, call times and lengths of virtually every US phone call extended to communications by members of Congress and executive branch officials.

Congressman Darrell Issa, a House Republican known for his staunch criticism of the Obama White House, asked specifically whether the program was scooping up information from “202-225-and four digits” — the phone exchange for House of Representatives offices.

“Without going specifically, probably we do, congressman,” Cole said.

Issa then asked whether the president’s phone calls were targeted by the program.

“I believe every phone number that is with the providers that get those orders comes in under the scope of that order,” Cole said, without clarifying whether the president’s phones fall within such an order.

Cole agreed to get back to Issa with clarification, to which Issa responded: “Especially if he (Obama) calls Chancellor Merkel.”

The remark was an apparent swipe at charges that the NSA had been listening in on the telephones of several world leaders including Germany’s Angela Merkel, who told Obama in October that such action would be a “breach of trust” between two allies.

Since the NSA has the capability to gather massive amounts of phone and internet data, maybe they could provide the record of the communications between Hillary and Obama during the Benghazi disaster. Come to think of it, I’d like to see the phone calls, emails, and cyber trail of the DOJ’s targeting of reporters’ emails, and Obama instructing the IRS to target Tea Party groups.

Related post:

http://sfcmac.wordpress.com/2014/01/17/when-you-text-make-sure-to-say-hello-to-the-nsa/