The intelligence agencies are out of control! That’s what Kentucky Senator Rand Paul essentially stated this week with accusations that former President Obama authorized warrantless wiretapping on his offices and those of other members of Congress. In the past, CIA spying on Senators charged with overseeing it has been a political issue that — while under the radar as far as most voters are concerned — is highly relevant to the free and independent functioning of U.S. democracy.
In the past, Congress has had hearings and independent commissions — most notably under Senator Frank Church in the 1970s — to examine if the CIA needed to continue to exist and what the agency was allowed and wasn’t allowed to do. (For the record, the CIA is barred from engaging in domestic spying, despite dramatic evidence to the contrary being presented in recent decades.) Former presidents such as John F. Kennedy have considered scrapping the agency and have fired its directors.
Under ex-President Obama, however, domestic spying of all Americans increased, and there were admissions by the National Security Agency (NSA) that enormous amounts of data were collected under a program known as PRISM. It’s been well-documented that the agency has access to phone records, emails, voice chats and computer files of all Americans, and just this year, the Senate made it legal for ISPs to sell records of people’s Internet browsing histories.
Even President Trump’s advisors haven’t been immune to the spying efforts, as Susan Rice, the former National Security Advisor under Obama, has stated. Whether Rice will be required to testify more about these matters under oath in front of Congress is currently being discussed (President Trump is strongly in favor of it).
As Gary Franchi reports in this salient clip, Rand Paul’s complaints against Obama are further proof that the Democratic administration was up to its neck in the dirty tricks of the intelligence trade. Congressional censure, as well as disciplinary action, of these agencies — hopefully along with Obama himself — is heartily recommended. Watch as Franchi makes a great case for it.
