Thanks, Obama: NSA to stream raw intelligence into FBI, DEA and pals
theregister.co.uk
theregister.co.uk
We now have clear evidence that 'for foreign investigation' is absolutely no boundary to domestic collection. Why would such a limitation be any different here than it was (not) for the NSA's collection?
But, in the place we have come to, nobody seems to actually care what the law (or even the Constitution) says.
But it's odd that Obama would do this on the way out the door. Why would he? It's not likely that he wanted to leave Trump all the tools to become a dictator. (I don't subscribe to that flavor of conspiracy theory, that both parties are in it to steal our freedom, despite the massive evidence in support.) It seems more likely that Obama felt this was genuinely necessary. Either he's right (which is very sobering), or he's mistaken. In the latter case, I could buy that the intelligence community genuinely believed that they needed it, and argued for it very persuasively.
But I still can't believe that they're right. Too many people died for freedom for us to give it away to avoid casualties. (If we're willing to make that trade, we won't keep much in the way of freedom, and we won't deserve to.)