wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

On Demand

NSA Monitoring

Thursday, June 25, 2009

U.S. Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ), chairman of the House Select Intelligence Oversight Panel, talks about his investigations on why the National Security Agency monitored the emails of American citizens.


Comments

  • [1] eva June 25, 2009 - 12:52AM

    After having been subjected to headlines about Mark Sanford's adulterous emails, I'd almost rather the NSA had my email than, say, the media.

    I'm feeling violated just knowing that The NYTimes and talkingpointsmemo.com published parts of the private, adulterous correspondence of Mark Sanford.

    I totally understand why it is relevant - the email was essentially written on the taxpayer's dime. And Sanford's hypocrisy is incredibly galling - even more so to people directly impacted by his conservative political positions on everything from gay marriage to the stimulus.

    But having been in the position of having to defend President Clinton to friends and coworkers during "L'Affaire Lewinsky", and having been frankly assaulted with the details of that really dismal affair (he didn't even... well, you know) in the pages of the Times (thanks to Ken Starr's "brilliant" prosecution -ugh) I'd like to make a suggestion:

    No more details. Please. Just like I didn't need to know about the Lewinsky-flavored cigar (ugh! read to me by my Republican co-worker who was rolling on the floor laughing at work! ugh!) I don't need to know about whatever Sanford wrote to his Argentine whatever.

    I also don't want to see us turn into the new Ken Starr. I always thought we were better than this.


  • [2] Robert from NYC June 25, 2009 - 09:16AM

    Change? my a**! I have to say I'm becoming more and more disenchanted (if that's the right word) with President Obama and his administration. This spying by NSA and other Bush policies that are staying in place are the issues that got lots of folks out to vote for Mr. Obama in the first place. I for one am ambiguous as to whether I would vote for him were he to run today; I lean toward a negative on this, that's how disappointed I am. I hope Rep Holt is sincere in his investigation and not just "putting on a show" for us that will go nowhere because they don't really take it anywhere. He's got my support.


  • [3] mike June 25, 2009 - 10:05AM

    Please ask Rep. Holt if he thinks that Republicans truly believe that wiretapping without a warrant helps protect us, or if they are really just a bunch of scumbags trying to make Democrats look weak.


  • [4] the truth from bkny June 25, 2009 - 10:09AM

    Brian, play the clip of him saying "Oops we didn't know this was still going on" please.


  • [5] the truth from bkny June 25, 2009 - 10:11AM

    Brian, that did not sound like President Obama said "Oops we didn't know this was still going on" read that part please.


  • [6] jim fouratt from greenwich village June 25, 2009 - 10:12AM

    Good Grief .. .who got to this very nervous Representative .. Brian, you need a deep throat who has no fear of reprisal!


  • [7] Lane June 25, 2009 - 10:17AM

    The issue I see with paper ballots is that it's an enormous amount of paper being wasted every year. How would you make paper ballots environmentally friendly?


  • [8] zen from south salem June 25, 2009 - 10:18AM

    When I bank at an ATM it spits out a reciept of the transaction, why can electronic voting machine not be required to do the same


  • [9] uos from queens June 25, 2009 - 10:20AM

    open source electronic balloting


  • [10] Hugh from Brookyn June 25, 2009 - 10:20AM

    Bravo, Rush Holt!

    It is refreshing to hear a member of Congress so clearly advocating democracy, both in electoral procedure and with regard to Bush, now Obama, domestic spying. (That spying being a clear violation of the Constitutional prohibitions against unreasonable searches.)


  • [11] mike June 25, 2009 - 10:22AM

    Hey! He just said something sincere and meaningful! I change my mind about this guy!


  • [12] Noah from Brooklyn June 25, 2009 - 10:22AM

    Why can't we have electronic ballots with a voter verifiable paper trail?


  • [13] the truth from bkny June 25, 2009 - 10:24AM

    Oh Really? Who says we don't have "secret police"


  • [14] mike June 25, 2009 - 10:25AM

    No secret police in America? The NSA wasn't even acknowledged for the longest time. What about what the NYPD did at the Republican convention?


  • [15] Hugh from Brookyn June 25, 2009 - 10:25AM

    We do have police acting secretly. The NYPD and others have infiltrated protest groups.

    The Department of Defense is training people that protesters are "low level terrorists" (that's the DoD's language). The ACLU has ongoing legal action against this identification of *legal speech acts* being identified with terrorism.


  • [16] CL June 25, 2009 - 10:26AM

    I guess he is probably innocuous, but what a tiresome bore! "Refreshing"??????? Hardly. A typical politician-- he yammers on and says almost nothing. Don't these robots ever listen to themselves? If this interview went one a single minute longer, I'd have turned off the radio.


  • [17] the truth from bkny June 25, 2009 - 10:26AM

    yep thank you very much representative, that was clear as mud.


  • [18] ariel from crown heights June 25, 2009 - 10:26AM

    ask nbc universal (cnbc) about their spy-cam/ surveillance program. it's not the government, it's the media that has become the big snoop in the 21st century.

    of course they would deny this, and that would be a lie. I'm very encouraged about the supreme court's ruling today.


  • [19] Brian from Brooklyn June 25, 2009 - 10:27AM

    http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/04/obama-doj-worse-than-bush

    Please read the Electronic Frontier Foundations summary of the arguments made by the Obama Administration. EFF brought the case to court for to revoke the wiretapping and lost.


  • [20] Paul Pazniokas from New Jersey June 25, 2009 - 01:27PM

    This whole move to paper ballots is so misleading, because it still won't allow us to audit our own vote after an election. There is a simple, inexpensive way to do this, but it's so difficult being heard above the noise. It's called "Vote Word" and it's described here: www.voteword.org


Leave a Comment

Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.

Your comment


* required
The information entered into this form will not be used to send unsolicited email and will not be sold to a third party.
 
Back to Episode