Despite promises from a few federal lawmakers to hold the Obama administration and the National Security Agency (NSA) accountable for the recently revealed practice of wholesale surveillance of millions of Americans, to date, nothing has been done.
In fact, as The New American reported last week, congressional impotence is likely to let Director of National Intelligence James Clapper escape any accountability for the lies he told under oath while testifying about the scope of the domestic spying program.
Of course, as the mainstream media maintains its attention laser-locked on Edward Snowden — the former NSA contractor who leaked the documents last month — Americans recognize that neither Snowden’s whereabouts nor his love life are of the slightest importance.
What matters is that one branch of the federal government (the executive) is unconstitutionally spying on Americans, another branch of the federal government (the legislative) is refusing to check that exercise of power, and a third branch (the judicial) is rubber-stamping all requests to keep the data pipeline open.
And, as the Atlantic reports, in many cases, a pipeline is exactly what is being tapped by the NSA. Writing for the Atlantic, Olga Khazan reports:
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