The Total Surveillance Of The Country Is Coming (Some Would Say It Is Here). Obama Strengthens NSA Control. Better Start Watching Your Ps and Qs!

Obama Doubles Down On NSA Dragnet, Preserves Centralized Administrative Structure Linking Military With NSA

December 13, 2013 by Ben Bullard

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Despite urging from intelligence officials who sought to institute a measure of face-saving accountability before a public angry over illegal government spying, the Administration of President Barack Obama has decided to keep the one-man administrative umbrella that oversees both the National Security Agency and Cyber Command, the military’s digital intelligence arm.

That decision serves as a strong declaration of intent for Obama, even as new revelations exposing the extent of the NSA’s extra-Constitutional powers come to light almost daily. As in the past, both the NSA and Cyber Command will continue to operate under the stewardship of Gen. Keith Alexander and whomever may succeed him when he retires in March.

Even Director of National Intelligence and infamous truth obfuscator James Clapper has suggested that NSA and Cyber Command should be reorganized under separate leaders, since their missions are fundamentally very different.

An Obama-appointed review panel even recommended the same thing, further suggesting that a civilian would provide more appropriate leadership for the NSA.

From The Washington Post, which reported Friday on the fallout from the decision:

The decision by President Obama comes amid signs that the White House is not inclined to impose significant new restraints on the NSA’s activities and favors maintaining an agency program that collects data on virtually every phone call that Americans make, although it is likely to impose additional privacy protection measures.

… Some officials familiar with the decision to keep on person in charge of both the NSA and Cyber command expressed disappointment. They say that the missions of the two organizations are fundamentally different: spying and conducting military attacks. “It’s a mistake,” said another U.S. official. “Cyber Command and NSA each needs its own full-time head, and [Obama] could have continued the coordination and close working relationship between the two organizations without them being led by the same individual.”

In so many words, the Obama Administration intends to pay lip service to demands for government accountability by allegedly imposing “additional privacy protection measures” – an imposition that necessarily must stake its validity on the will of the American people to trust the government to keep its word – while doubling down on government’s inherent prerogative to monitor the private, lawful activities of American citizens.