Submitted by: Nancy Battle
In
a stunning development, Deputy Director of the NSA, John Inglis,
along with Assistant Attorney General, James Cole, have fled the
United States after their participation in a contentious congressional meeting on Capitol Hill.
In that meeting, both Inglis and Cole revealed that the depth of NSA spying far surpassed
anything that whistleblower Edward Snowden has made public to
date. The unauthorized leaks to Congress by Inglis and Cole,
which exposed more about NSA spying than anything Snowden has
revealed, shook congressional leaders to their core.
The National Security Agency revealed to an angry congressional panel on Wednesday that its analysis of phone records and online behavior goes exponentially beyond what it had previously disclosed.The Obama administration, blindsided by the leaks, immediately announced that the two would be charged under The Espionage Act, and declared them enemies of the state.[...]John C Inglis, the deputy director of the surveillance agency, told a member of the House judiciary committee that NSA analysts can perform "a second or third hop query" through its collections of telephone data and internet records in order to find connections to terrorist organizations."Hops" refers to a technical term indicating connections between people. A three-hop query means that the NSA can look at data not only from a suspected terrorist, but from everyone that suspect communicated with, and then from everyone those people communicated with, and then from everyone all of those people communicated with.
Eric Holder, in a hastily convened press conference,
admitted that the two had fled the United States on private jets
immediately after the hearing, and that their whereabouts where
unknown. He was, however, confident that the U.S. would bring them to justice.
“The national security of the United States has been damaged by those leaks. The safety of the American people and safety of people in allied nations is at risk."Rumors are that the two senior intelligence officials have fled to Venezuela, where like Snowden, it is anticipated they will seek asylum. However, much speculation is swirling at this stage regarding their location and fate. While President Obama, in a short session before reporters, said, "We won't be scrambling any jets to catch these middle-aged leakers," diplomatic channels were already furiously at work, trying to close off all international airspace.[...]“I am confident that the people who are responsible will be held accountable.”
Comment of Ron Branson:
ReplyDeleteHigh government officials are being declared "Enemies Of The State" because they dared to expose insider information as to what was taking place within the NSA to the Congressional House Judiciary Committee who is investigating this issue. This act has caused the Obama Administration to charge these Officials with violations under the Espionage Act.
We have now come full circle to where government is unable to investigate itself for wrong-doing without being in violation of the law. It has become illustrative of the scenario of the snake being swallowed up starting with its own tail.
This now raises the questions reflecting upon the pursuit of Edward Snowden for the alleged same violation who is now joined in exile to foreign countries by other government officials now seeking asylum from the United States.
Ron Branson