Video & Multimedia

WhoIsNumberNone

(7,875 posts) Thu Dec 31, 2015, 11:21 AM Dec 2015

TYT: NSA Caught Spying On Congress, Israel, Everyone...

The NSA was recently caught spying on several allies, but since one of them is Israel (which about half the country thinks is a fantastical land full of Bible magic), this is a story. The fact that the NSA is still spying on members of US congress and have gone completely off their leash apparently doesn’t interest anyone anymore. Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola (Think Tank), hosts of the The Young Turks, break it down. Tell us what you think in the comment section below.

"The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that the NSA under President Obama targeted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top aides for surveillance. In the process, the agency ended up eavesdropping on “the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups” about how to sabotage the Iran Deal. All sorts of people who spent many years cheering for and defending the NSA and its programs of mass surveillance are suddenly indignant now that they know the eavesdropping included them and their American and Israeli friends rather than just ordinary people.”*

Read more here: https://theintercept.com/2015/12/30/spying-on-congress-and-israel-nsa-cheerleaders-discover-value-of-privacy-only-when-their-own-is-violated/

4 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

TYT: NSA Caught Spying On Congress, Israel, Everyone... (Original Post) WhoIsNumberNone Dec 2015 OP

This story miss's the mark.....it was much, much, more it was about undermining US foreign policy. Historic NY Dec 2015 #1

"It shows just how conniving the Republicans were." Unknown Beatle Dec 2015 #4

This is who really runs the country. jalan48 Dec 2015 #2

Couldn't care less Hulk Dec 2015 #3

Historic NY

(37,449 posts)

1. This story miss's the mark.....it was much, much, more it was about undermining US foreign policy.

Reply to WhoIsNumberNone (Original post)

Thu Dec 31, 2015, 11:29 AM

Dec 2015

It started off as a routine call between then-House Speaker John Boehner and the incoming Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, about ways Republicans in Congress could put the brakes on the nuclear pact President Barack Obama was negotiating with Iran.

Then Messrs. Boehner and McConnell had a light-bulb moment: They could undercut Mr. Obama by extending an invitation to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a speech to a joint session of Congress opposing the emerging deal.

The initiative set in motion by Messrs. Boehner and McConnell during the Jan. 8 phone call not only would inflame hostilities between the White House and Republicans in Congress but exacerbate the biggest breakdown in relations between U.S. and Israeli heads of state in decades, as detailed in this Wall Street Journal piece.

Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio) and Mr. McConnell (R., Ky.) knew secrecy was key. If word leaked out, they believed the White House would pressure Mr. Netanyahu to decline. To ensure the invitation would come as a surprise, the leaders decided to tell only their closest aides.

“We knew this would be a poke in the eye,” a person close to the Republican leaders said of the invitation.

The immediate concern was whether Mr. Netanyahu would agree to accept the invitation. Mr. Netanyahu’s relationship with Mr. Obama was already deeply troubled. Initially, the two Republicans weren’t sure the prime minister would be eager to make that situation even worse by entering into a direct political fight with the president in Congress.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/12/29/the-phone-call-that-upended-u-s-israel-relations/

It shows just how conniving the Republicans were.

Unknown Beatle

(2,672 posts)

4. "It shows just how conniving the Republicans were."

Reply to Historic NY (Reply #1)

Thu Dec 31, 2015, 09:36 PM

Dec 2015

Were? They were, are, and will always will be conniving assholes.

jalan48

(13,866 posts)

2. This is who really runs the country.

Reply to WhoIsNumberNone (Original post)

Thu Dec 31, 2015, 11:31 AM

Dec 2015

We don't vote for them and in most cases aren't even allowed to know their names. They have the dirt on all of our so-called elected officials, so who do we think our elected officials really answer to?

Hulk

(6,699 posts)

3. Couldn't care less

Reply to WhoIsNumberNone (Original post)

Thu Dec 31, 2015, 03:44 PM

Dec 2015

As Cenk was saying, ALL countries do it. I'm not so certain some of these butt holes in the GOP congress are not "enemies", but that gets out there on the conspiracy plank. Not going to go there.

Yeah...the whole thing is a political theater. Shame on the evil black President for spying on our benevolent, confidant, Net......<yuck, yuck>. Just more fox-nonsense theater. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Of course you can be upset that the gop-ers were spied on. Might as well be upset that YOU are being spied on as well while you are at it.

Reply to this discussion