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Comment by einhverfr | Hacker News Reader

I would agree. However I think it is more important to impeach those in charge of the intelligence community first and then work up to the President.

I am not sure the President is in the loop here. As far as I can tell he gets most of his info in these areas from the same sources that we do.

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Let's say the President was not in the loop, and all of this stuff was a surprise to him. Why has he not taken any decisive action to fix the problem?

He asked for the resignation of the head of the IRS after the political targeting scandal. He asked for the resignation of General McChrystal after he talked trash about Obama in a Rolling Stone article. But in this brazen assault by the NSA on the very foundations of our government Obama has barely responded at all. Director Clapper flat out lied to Congress and Obama hasn't even lifted a finger.

That to me indicates that Obama is absolutely supportive of what the NSA is doing.

He probably is in the loop, but if he isn't, he sure should be able to get in the loop when he learns about things like this.

The NSA sets itself up as the Fourth branch of government but keeps it a secret even from the original three?

It will not be the first organ of the state to morph into "a state within the state" though it is surprising to see it happening in a liberal democracy.

Or perhaps we were encouraged to look away from the curtain all this time.

The President definitely doesn't get his information from the same sources we do. He has daily access to top-secret information.

"The President's Daily Brief (PDB) ... is a top-secret document produced each morning for the President of the United States."[1]

And he can definitely read the legal decisions that come out of the FISA court. There's no way that a FISA court decision declaring an NSA program unconstitutional wouldn't get to the President's desk.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President%27s_Daily_Brief

I am aware of this. I was however noting that Obama himself admitted to learning about many of the NSA's programs through the press. It isn't beyond possibility that he had no personal knowledge of court procedings and what was asked of the FISC.

I am not sure the President is in the loop here

NSA is the presidents game.

> I am not sure the President is in the loop here. As far as I can tell he gets most of his info in these areas from the same sources that we do.

And you're okay with that?

I am not, but given the size of the current federal government I think it is inevitable.

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