While spying on Israel the NSA ensnared some members of the Congress

  During the Iran nuclear deal deal negotiations the NSA was spying on conversations between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides over concerns that he might attempt to sabotage the deal or possibly even bomb Iran. (To be fair Benjamin Netanyahu was reportedly also spying on the United States in order to get the details of the deal before it was finalized.)

  It is now being reported that the NSA spying program might have inadvertently  captured the private conversations of some members of the Congress, here is more:

The National Security Agency’s effort to eavesdrop on communications between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides reportedly also captured private conversations involving U.S. lawmakers and members of American Jewish groups.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the NSA’s monitoring of such exchanges raised fears that the Obama administration would be accused of spying on Congress, with one official calling it an “oh, s— moment”. 

  It is hard to glean from the article if these conversations were between the Congress and American Jewish groups or if the conversations were between the Congress and Israel and separately between the American Jewish groups and Israel; if it is the former and private conversations between Congress members and American Jewish groups were captured it seems highly unlikely to me that this was an accident and it is inexcusable. While if the latter is the case it would be more understandably how the NSA could have accidentally captured these conversations, although that does not excuse the NSA from spying on an ally in the first place…

  The House Intelligence Committee is now looking into these allegations:

“The House Intelligence Committee is looking into allegations in the Wall Street Journal regarding possible Intelligence Community (IC) collection of communications between Israeli government officials and members of Congress,” Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said in a statement. “The Committee has requested additional information from the IC to determine which, if any, of these allegations are true, and whether the IC followed all applicable laws, rules, and procedures.”

  And, as usual when if comes to Constitutional issues, Rand Paul is on the right side of this potential controversy:

“I’m appalled by it,” Paul said Wednesday. “You could see how it would stifle speech if you’re going to eavesdrop on congressmen, and that it might stifle what they say or who they communicate with.”

  The internet is now awash with stories about how Barack Obama was using the NSA to spy on the Congress, everyone has an opinion, but there is one part of this story that I have not seen discussed anywhere so I am going to attempt to attack this story from a different angle–the angle of hypocrisy.

  Here goes.

  As the last article I linked to states, when this spying on Israel began it had the support of both parties so it will be interesting to see how many of the Republicans who come out against the NSA for spying on them actually support the NSA data-mining program which is collecting the data on average, law-abiding American citizens. Double standard much?

  There is a history here however that cannot be ignored, both with the Executive branch spying on the Congress, and with the hypocrisy of lawmakers who are offended when the government does it to them but support it when the government does it to us. 

  Dianne Feinstein was an ardent supporter of the NSA data-mining program however she was taken aback when she learned the CIA might have been spying on her. Here is part of what I wrote in 2014 when this story first came to light: 

She did not have a problem when the NSA was gathering records of all Americans’ phone records and she didn’t have a problem when it was learned the government was spying on people’s Facebook pages, emails and browsing history, but suddenly she is upset when it happens to her. I guess some people are more equal than others.

  I guess some people are protected under the Constitution and some people are not.

  I was not defending what the CIA did, if indeed the CIA did it, and I am not defending the NSA in this case. I am merely pointing out the selective outrage and the fact, in my opinion, that many in the Congress do not care about the Fourth Amendment or the Constitution when the average American citizen’s rights are being violated, and in fact support the violation, but care deeply about it when their own Fourth Amendment right is violated.

  There is only one person in the Congress in my opinion who is consistent on this issue, and other Constitutional issues, and that is Rand Paul, as far as I am concerned the others are selective-Constitutionalists who only talk a good game about the Constitution when an election year rolls around but do nothing to defend it at all other times when they have the chance to and that is why I support the Senator from Kentucky for President of the United States.

  I would be remiss if I did not mention here that I believe a good portion of the American people are probably not true Constitutionalists, despite their claims to the contrary, (regular readers of America’s Watchtower excepted of course), but are in reality also selective-Constitutionalists. How else can you explain the fact that the one candidate who actually understands the Constitution can gain no traction in the polls? Sadly we are living in a post-Constitutional America whether you want to admit it or not…

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium