by Stephen Lendman

You can't make this stuff up. It sounds like a bad film plot. The fix is in. Obama's reform assures business as usual. His promises aren't worth the paper they're written on.

He says one thing. He does another. It happens every time. He broke every major promise made. He's a serial liar. He governs lawlessly.

He claims Washington doesn't have a domestic spying. NSA monitors everyone everywhere all the time. Obama lied claiming otherwise.A previous article said London's Guardian headlined "NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens' emails and phone calls."

Snowden revealed a secret NSA backdoor. It's a previously undisclosed rule. It lets NSA operatives "hunt for individual Americans' communications using their name or other identifying information."

Under the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) Section 702, warrantless intelligence data is collected. It's official policy.

It includes foreign and domestic communications. Deceptive language calls it "incidental collection." There's nothing "incidental" about it.

It's systematic meta-data mining. It's done extrajudicially. It's without oversight. Until now, it's been secret. It's far more intrusive than previously believed.

It permits warrantless searches. In 2011, Obama approved it. He did it secretly. On request, FISA court judges rubber-stamp approval. Whatever NSA wants it gets.

Obama assurances about privacy, transparency and reform ring hollow. It bears repeating. Business as usual continues. Big Brother watches everyone.

On August 12, a White House Press release said:

"Presidential Memorandum -- Reviewing Our Global Signals Intelligence Collection and Communications Technologies

SUBJECT: Reviewing Our Global Signals Intelligence Collection and Communications Technologies

The United States, like all nations, gathers intelligence in order to protect its national interests and to defend itself, its citizens, and its partners and allies from threats to our security.

The United States cooperates closely with many countries on intelligence matters and these intelligence relationships have helped to ensure our common security.

Recent years have brought unprecedented and rapid advancements in communications technologies, particularly with respect to global telecommunications.

These technological advances have brought with them both great opportunities and significant risks for our Intelligence Community: opportunity in the form of enhanced technical capabilities that can more precisely and readily identify threats to our security, and risks in the form of insider and cyber threats.

I believe it is important to take stock of how these technological advances alter the environment in which we conduct our intelligence mission.

To this end, by the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I am directing you to establish a Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies (Review Group).

The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust.

Within 60 days of its establishment, the Review Group will brief their interim findings to me through the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), and the Review Group will provide a final report and recommendations to me through the DNI no later than December 15, 2013.

You are hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register."

BARACK OBAMA

So-called review groups and independent commissions reflect damage control. They lack credibility. They spurn truth and full disclosure.

In his book titled "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions," David Ray Griffin said Bush officials "deliberately" failed to prevent the attacks or were "actively involved in (their) planning and execution."

He titled a
separate article "The 9/11 Commission Report: A 571-Page Lie," saying:

"(T)he entire Report is constructed in support of one big lie: that the official story about 9/11 is true."

Griffin's not sure how many lies the report contains. His book identified over 100. His article added others. He discussed 115 lies he knows about.

He concluded saying "far from lessening (his) suspicions about official complicity, (the report) served to confirm them."

"Why would the minds in charge of this final report engage in such deception if they were not trying to cover up very high crimes," he asked?

The commission was stacked with insiders. Philip Zelikow was executive director. He's a former State Department official. He was a GHW Bush National Security Council member.

He served on GW Bush's 2000-01 transition team. He was appointed to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He worked on other administration initiatives.

Thomas Kean's a former New Jersey governor. Lee Hamilton's a former Democrat House member. Fred Fielding's a former Republican White House Council.

Jamie Gorelick's a former Clinton administration Deputy Attorney General. John Lehman's a former Navy secretary. James Thompson's a former Illinois governor.

Other members were seriously compromised. Max Cleland was the one exception. The former Georgia senator resigned. He did so saying "the White House has played cover-up." Former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey replaced him.

Clapper is Obama's Zelikow. Coverup, distortion and denial will follow. Reform is a nonstarter. So is truth and full disclosure.

Business as usual is policy. It's always this way. It's no different now. Appointing Clapper exposes the ruse. Doing so reflects flagrant conflict of interest.

He's director of national intelligence (DNI). He lied to Congress. He committed perjury. He remains unaccountable.

He said Washington has no domestic spying program. He was forced to admit his lack of candor. He did so disingenuously. Obama wants a known liar investigating NSA spying.

Monday evening, White House damage control tried dampening controversy. According to National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden:

"The panel members are being selected by the White House, in consultation with the intelligence community."

She claimed DNI must be involved. Panel members need security clearances, she added. They're needed to access classified material.

She stopped short of saying anyone can be vetted like insiders. Credibility depends on independence. Insiders are wholly lacking. They're paid to distort, coverup and lie.

Putting foxes in charge of henhouse investigations assures same old, same old results. It happens every time

Monday evening, Obama disingenuously backtracked, saying:

He establish(ed) a review group on intelligence and communications technologies."

It'll report to him through Clapper. He, in turn, issued his own statement, saying:

"DNI Clapper Announces Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies

At the direction of the President, I am establishing the Director of National Intelligence Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies to examine our global signals-intelligence collection and surveillance capability.

The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust.

The Review Group will brief its interim findings to the President within 60 days of its establishment, and provide a final report with recommendations no later than Dec. 15, 2013."

James R. Clapper

Director of National Intelligence

On August 12, Timothy Lee headlined "The man who misled Congress on spying will pick Obama's intelligence review panel," saying:

"The announcement doesn't inspire confidence that the president is interested in truly independent scrutiny of the nation's surveillance programs."

"And there are other signs that the group won't turn out quite the way the president described it on Friday."

"Fridays speech talked about the need for input from outside experts with independent points of view."

"The president made no mention of the need for outsiders or independent viewpoints in his memo to Clapper."

There's "no mention of preventing abuses. The so-called commission will examine whether US spying "optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust."

In 1975, Gerald Ford appointed Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. He headed a commission in charge of investigating US intelligence agency abuses.

Members chosen had close administration ties. Coverup and whitewash followed. Administrations abhor independence. Obama claiming otherwise doesn't wash.

Senator Frank Church headed the only credible commission in recent memory. Congress has none like him now. His US Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities said:

NSA's "capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter."

"There would be no place to hide." Church's warning went unheeded. Today's surveillance abuse far exceeds his time.

Insider commissions assure safe results. Manipulated deception substitutes for truth and full disclosure. This time's no different.

Perhaps David Ray Griffin will title a future book "The Clapper Commission: Omissions, Distortions and Bald-Faced Lies."

-###-

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour