"The alarming scale of domestic surveillance under this White House is shocking and it is inexcusable," Glenn told his radio audience this morning. "Millions of Americans, according to the Guardian, not to some conspiracy theorist but now according to the Guardian."
Last night, the latest in a string of White House scandals broke, and this time it effects all Americans. The Guardian released a full court document exposing that Verizon — one of the most widely carried cellular networks in the country — was forced to hand over the telephone data of millions of Americans to the NSA. The United States government is collecting the phone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top secret court order.
The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald reports, “The document shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of US citizens are being collected indiscriminately and in bulk – regardless of whether they are suspected of any wrongdoing.”
According to the report, the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved the court order to the FBI on April 25. The order gives the U.S. government complete authority to compile all the data they want over the designated three month period, ending on July 19. The order was signed by FISC Judge Roger Vinson, a federal judge in Florida. TheBlaze.com reports that in 2011 Vinson was also the first federal judge to find Obamacare unconstitutional in its entirety.
Just last month, a mainstream outlet mocked and ridiculed Glenn for his "conspiracy theory" that the federal government was gathering information on a mass scale, claiming he had no evidence.
"I thought to myself as I was reading it, 'what in the hell do you think that they're doing out in Utah? What do you think they're building that gigantic storage facility for, from the NSA? What do you think they're using that for?'" Glenn recalled.
They have more evidence than they need now.
"My gosh, what do you need that for?" Pat asked. "They defended this today by saying that this, such information, the telephone records of U.S. citizens is a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats. How is gathering the phone calls of normal American citizens not suspected of terror, how does that help protect the nation from terror strikes?"
Pat and Glenn also noted the unlikelihood that Verizon is the only telephone network that they are obtaining these records from.
Glenn also noted how insulting it is that the Obama administration will obtain the phone records of American citizens who aren't acting outside of the law, but aren't worried about securing the border…or, at the very least, getting a little more information about the people that are crossing it illegally.
"You tell me why the government needs this information on every Verizon customer but they don't need to know who's coming across our border?" he asked. "They don't need to know where the 15,000 foreign nationals are that skipped out on their visa, just didn't show up to school but they're here in the United States. You tell me why they need my grandmother's phone records but they don't need to know where the Saudi nationals are. Why they don't need — why they need to know who's calling who inside the United States of America. They need to know who's calling who, how long the phone conversations were lasting, the GPS locators for all of the cellphones, when those phones, when that phone call was made. Why do they need all of that for domestic terror but they can't seem to get it right with the Boston bombers? They don't know where that guy was. You tell me why they need all of this information. Why do you need to go for the AP? You don't need to go for the AP and target the reporters."
Will this wake up more Americans? Or will the average citizen buy into the national security lies that the administration will offer to the public?
Glenn was quick to point out that if they can get away with this, they can do anything. Every time the American people don't defend their rights they are given away.
"Unless you defend those rights every single time, you lose them," Glenn said. "You can't pick and choose. You can't say, 'Well, I'm not affected by that. So I don't care'."
"If somebody comes and scoops up all of my neighbor's information because they're on Verizon and just gathers all of that information, it is a violation of my civil rights as well," Glenn continued. "I'm telling you, America, we are the civil rights leaders of this day. Accept your position. Accept your role. Square your shoulders. Stand up. Link arms. Some of us will not make it to the end, as they used to say because this is a long, long journey to the end of the road. But man will be free as long as people understand the Bill of Rights. It was given to us, yes, by man, and flawed men, but it was inspired by God. Those rights don't belong to you. You are merely a guardian of those rights for our children and our grandchildren, of all color, of all races, of all theological backgrounds. You are a guardian and a steward. Recognize what time it is. Recognize why you have been born, where you have been born. You have been given much, and believe me, much is required, not just expected."
See the White House's response to the obtained court document HERE.
