Shocked, SHOCKED I am!!!

[johnridley]

Whistleblower: NSA spied on everyone, targeted journalists

"It didn't matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications."

He further said that journalists were monitored 24/7/365. And when he tried to figure out why, he was fired.

Comments

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

The problem is, we're not shocked. We're saying, "Yep, no surprise there." We should be marching on Washington with pitchforks, looking for the NSA archives, but no, we're sitting at home wringing our hands.

I'm guessing this will become more of an issue when Russell Tice points out that it wasn't just Keith Olbermann's phone that was being monitored 24/7, it was Rush Limbaugh's and every other journalist.

I wonder if the NSA captured the calls to 900 numbers (or equivalent)? That could be fun, if an FOIA order could produce them.

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

it wasn't just Keith Olbermann's phone that was being monitored 24/7, it was Rush Limbaugh's and every other journalist.

As much as I like Keith, I'm not sure I'd really call him a journalist, despite the fact that he was the one that broke this story. I certainly wouldn't call Rush a journalist. I would call the former a social commentator and the latter a joke.

However, I can easily see the Bush admin wanting to get dirt on Olbermann because he was and remains a harsh critic of the administration. Wanting to discredit him would have been an attractive target. (Not that any of his fans would have listened - they would see it as proof Keith was right!.)

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

If it's true that journalists were monitored just to get dirt on them using the surveillance systems intended to fight terrorism, then IMO this is AT LEAST as big a deal as Watergate was.