After listening to Dan Carlin's "Common Sense" podcast, which I HIGHLY recommend checking out, I came across what my Senator Chambliss ahd to say over the whole ordeal of Edward Snowden releasing information on the NSA spying on Americans.
I wasn't pleased with his response, so I wrote him the following. I wonder how the response, if I get one, will read.
Dear Sen. Chambliss:
I'd first like to apologize for the late letter. I have only recently become aware of your statements regarding the NSA leak by one Edward Snowden. You have a few remarks on the matter that I inherently believe deserve some sort of explanation. Any light you can shed would be very much appreciated and valued.
The Guardian's Glen Greenwald has been steadily releasing information that is quite staggering, and frankly, no one in the government has done an adequate job of explaining why this is happening and how they plan to remedy the situation. On your initial press conference, back on the 7th of June you stated,
"Let me just emphasize, this is nothing particularly new. This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this.
To my knowledge, we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information. It is simply what we call metadata that is never utilized by any governmental agency unless they go back to the FISA court and show that there’s real cause as to why something within the metadata should be looked at.
That’s been very clear all along through the years of this program. It is proved meritorious, because we have gathered significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years."
Ok... first off, how were we the people suppose to know that the NSA, which as I understood it, was responsible for spying on people OUTSIDE of the US, was actually spying on us? It has been kept a secret for quite some time now. It's kind of hard to register a complaint when you have no idea something is happening to you! Your fellow Senator Mark Udall has expressed concerns over privacy issues for Americans but I can't seem to find where you yourself have said anything similar. What are your views on this whole NSA debacle? Do you think it is OK for them to have such either a) have such a poor system of intelligence gathering that it swoops up American info as well, or b) that they've been doing it behind our backs anyway. I understand we need to keep terrorists at bay, but how does spying, on everyone, help exactly? What bad guys have been nabbed due to this surveillance? I value my privacy, and if I had known about this I'd have emailed you sooner! What do you guys know about how this NSA works exactly? I'm sure you have to take some sort of vow to be on the Senate Intelligence Commitee, but by doing so, what about your vow to protect the Constitution? How is what the NSA doing not a violation of the 4th amendment?
The whistle blowers who have come out and reported what they have seen happen at the NSA, Snowden, William Binney, and there's another whose name escapes me, have released information that seems to prove that the government is violating the people's right to privacy in order to protect us. I personally think that sentiment is outrageous and needs to be changed.
Before this email goes more off the rails I guess I should get to my true point and that is this, as a Senator, representing my state of GA, what exactly do you plan to do about this? The NSA seems to be in violation of the Constitution. What does the Senate Intelligence Committee plan to do here, in order to hold the people accountable for spying on Americans, be it on purpose or by accident?
I look forward to your response.
Thanks-
sTs
Reply coming soon hopefully!
I wasn't pleased with his response, so I wrote him the following. I wonder how the response, if I get one, will read.
Dear Sen. Chambliss:
I'd first like to apologize for the late letter. I have only recently become aware of your statements regarding the NSA leak by one Edward Snowden. You have a few remarks on the matter that I inherently believe deserve some sort of explanation. Any light you can shed would be very much appreciated and valued.
The Guardian's Glen Greenwald has been steadily releasing information that is quite staggering, and frankly, no one in the government has done an adequate job of explaining why this is happening and how they plan to remedy the situation. On your initial press conference, back on the 7th of June you stated,
"Let me just emphasize, this is nothing particularly new. This has been going on for seven years under the auspices of the FISA authority and every member of the United States Senate has been advised of this.
To my knowledge, we have not had any citizen who has registered a complaint relative to the gathering of this information. It is simply what we call metadata that is never utilized by any governmental agency unless they go back to the FISA court and show that there’s real cause as to why something within the metadata should be looked at.
That’s been very clear all along through the years of this program. It is proved meritorious, because we have gathered significant information on bad guys, but only on bad guys, over the years."
Ok... first off, how were we the people suppose to know that the NSA, which as I understood it, was responsible for spying on people OUTSIDE of the US, was actually spying on us? It has been kept a secret for quite some time now. It's kind of hard to register a complaint when you have no idea something is happening to you! Your fellow Senator Mark Udall has expressed concerns over privacy issues for Americans but I can't seem to find where you yourself have said anything similar. What are your views on this whole NSA debacle? Do you think it is OK for them to have such either a) have such a poor system of intelligence gathering that it swoops up American info as well, or b) that they've been doing it behind our backs anyway. I understand we need to keep terrorists at bay, but how does spying, on everyone, help exactly? What bad guys have been nabbed due to this surveillance? I value my privacy, and if I had known about this I'd have emailed you sooner! What do you guys know about how this NSA works exactly? I'm sure you have to take some sort of vow to be on the Senate Intelligence Commitee, but by doing so, what about your vow to protect the Constitution? How is what the NSA doing not a violation of the 4th amendment?
The whistle blowers who have come out and reported what they have seen happen at the NSA, Snowden, William Binney, and there's another whose name escapes me, have released information that seems to prove that the government is violating the people's right to privacy in order to protect us. I personally think that sentiment is outrageous and needs to be changed.
Before this email goes more off the rails I guess I should get to my true point and that is this, as a Senator, representing my state of GA, what exactly do you plan to do about this? The NSA seems to be in violation of the Constitution. What does the Senate Intelligence Committee plan to do here, in order to hold the people accountable for spying on Americans, be it on purpose or by accident?
I look forward to your response.
Thanks-
sTs
Reply coming soon hopefully!
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