NSA Surveillance Program: Is Obama Or Congress To Blame? -- International Business Times
The revelation of mass surveillance programs with access to phone records data and online communications has some lawmakers and editorial boards up in arms against President Obama. He is, they say, guilty of George W. Bush-style overreach.
On Friday, the president deflected these allegations of overreach by placing liability on Congress. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.
Obama’s defense of mass collection of data from tech and telecommunications companies is that the program is checked by Congress, as well as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts. “Every member of Congress has been briefed on these programs,” Obama said, referring to the phone data collection by NSA. “These are programs that have been authorized by broad, bipartisan majorities repeatedly since 2006. And so I think at the outset it’s important to understand that your duly elected representatives have been consistently informed on what we are doing.”
Read more ....
My Comment: Both Democrats and Republicans are disputing President Obama's claims that they were notified. What's my take .... this is a lose - lose situation for the President. Republicans appear to be split on the NSA program .... but for Democrats .... specifically the base .... this is sore point .... and for hard-core progressives .... inexcusable. As to who is to blame .... in my 'book' I am blaming both parties.