Americans, and I certainly hope by now the majority of Democrats, for once simply want O’Bush to actually do what he says. Just once.

So I’m curious, what part of the definitions for the words “INDEPENDENT” and “OUTSIDE” equate remotely to appointing the treasonous monster who not only recently outright lied and had to apologize to congress, but who led in the creation and implementation of the entirety of the very programs in question – Section 702 and 215 of the Patriot Act? You don’t get anymore “dependent” and “inside” than DNI’s James Clapper. Is there some sort of sick, twisted dark pleasure these rapacious “insiders” possess by making such a repugnant appointment?

Why any believe a single word O’Bush speaks is beyond me.

Following are other’s reactions to his less than 72 hour one eighty –

emptywheel

“When Obama announced Friday the formation of a technical advisory group to review our SIGINT programs, I naively believed “outside” and “independent” meant “outside” and “independent.”

Fourth, we’re forming a high-level group of outside experts to review our entire intelligence and communications technologies. We need new thinking for a new era. We now have to unravel terrorist plots by finding a needle in the haystack of global telecommunications. And meanwhile, technology has given governments — including our own — unprecedented capability to monitor communications.

So I am tasking this independent group to step back and review our capabilities — particularly our surveillance technologies. And they’ll consider how we can maintain the trust of the people, how we can make sure that there absolutely is no abuse in terms of how these surveillance technologies are used, ask how surveillance impacts our foreign policy — particularly in an age when more and more information is becoming public. And they will provide an interim report in 60 days and a final report by the end of this year, so that we can move forward with a better understanding of how these programs impact our security, our privacy, and our foreign policy. [my emphasis]

“I also naively believed this was an effort to take up Ron Wyden and Mark Udall’s call to get an independent review of the program, which the rest of the Senate Intelligence Committee thwarted a year ago.”

We also proposed directing the committee’s Technical Advisory Group to study FISA Amendments Act collection and provide recommendations for improvements. We were disappointed that our motion to request that the Technical Advisory Group study this issue was ruled by our colleagues to be out of order.

Source

zerohedge nails it –

“A question arises: how does one know they are living in an unmitigated disaster of a banana republic where not even an attempt at hiding the crime and corruption takes place? Well, we are not absolutely certain, but we have a distinct feeling that when the president appoints as his impartial “reviewer” of the ultra top secret NSA’s policies and capabilities the one man who was caught and exposed and subsequently apologized for lying to Congress, that may be a pretty damn good sign.”

“Sadly, that is precisely what just happened.”

“And speaking of comedy and banana republics, here is the memo from the president“

Source

Washingtons blog gets the final word in this farce –

TechDirt notes:

[Obama] asking Clapper to first create and set up this “outside” and “independent” review group… and then to have the group report its findings back to Clapper. The same strong defender of the program who flat out lied to Congress about it. If this was about “restoring the trust” of the American people that the government isn’t pulling a fast one over on them, President Obama sure has a funny way of trying to rebuild that trust. This seems a lot more like giving the concerns of the American public a giant middle finger.

Will Wheaton tweets:

President Obama putting Clapper in charge of the #NSA commission *that reports back to Clapper* is a giant Fuck You to America.

Source

UPDATE: Well this is rich. The headline over at the Guardian says “White House insists James Clapper will not lead NSA surveillance review”

What bullshit, of course he’s going to head or overwhelmingly INFLUENCE the damned council. Who the hell is this O’Bush administration trying to fool? You? I think not. You are wiser than all of the people who work in the damned administration when put together.  Apparently, these critters don’t like sunshine and they certainly don’t like THE PEOPLE, that would be YOU, questioning not only their authority but their shortsighted, out of touch, moronic stupidity!

From the Guardian –

The White House has moved to dampen controversy over the role of the director of national intelligence James Clapper in a panel reviewing NSA surveillance, insisting that he would neither lead it nor choose the members.

Statements by Barack Obama and Clapper on Monday night were widely interpreted as the director of national intelligence being placed in charge of the inquiry, which the president had announced on Friday would be “independent”.

The apparent involvement of Clapper, who has admitted lying to Congress over NSA surveillance of US citizens, provoked a backlash, with critics accusing the president of putting a fox in charge of the hen house.

But the White House national security council insisted on Tuesday that Clapper’s role would be more limited.

“The panel members are being selected by the White House, in consultation with the intelligence community,” national security council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.

The DNI had to be involved for administrative reasons, because the panel would need security clearance and access to classified material, she added.

After the White House and the Pentagon released their statements saying Clapper had been asked by Obama to “establish” the panel and report its findings, media outlets reported this to mean Clapper heading the panel and choosing the members.

Republican congressman Justin Amash, who led a revolt that narrowly failed in its effort to cut NSA funding, tweeted: “Pres Obama believes man who lied to public in congressional hearing about NSA should lead NSA review process meant to build public trust”.

Clapper apologised last month for misleading a Senate hearing by denying that the NSA collects information about millions of Americans.

In response to leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, Obama announced at a press conference on Friday that an independent panel of outsiders would be set up to investigate concerns about the scale of NSA surveillance.

The president appeared to backtrack on Monday evening when he said he was directing Clapper “to establish a review group on intelligence and communications technologies” that would brief and later report to the president through Clapper by December.

Read the rest by clicking – http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/13/white-house-james-clapper-nsa-surveillance-review

What a bunch of simpletons. Seriously, why would ANY AMERICAN EVER TRUST A MAN WHO OUT RIGHT LIED TO CONGRESS WITH A STRAIGHT FACE assemble a commission to look into HIS OWN NEFARIOUS, OVER THE TOP, OVER REACH, OVER FRIGGIN EVERYTHING as it relates to the dragnet he and his treasonous pals created!!!

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