We don’t know from whom the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald learned about the government’s secret collection of Verizon customers’ phone records, but the Obama administration is interested in finding out. White House aide Ben Rhodes today said that the administration is assessing the damage done to U.S. national security by the leak, but he stopped short of saying the president would order a criminal investigation.
In either case, we might have the makings of another Bradley Manning on our hands. Wil Wheaton today declared the unidentified leaker to have a greater respect for the Constitution than the members of Congress who allowed the spying to go on. We know that President Obama has heard about the government’s surveillance program, as he defended it yesterday, noting that “You can’t have 100 percent security and then have 100 percent privacy” before adding, “there’s a reason these programs are classified.”
Somehow, though, the president escaped mention in Wheaton’s tweet.
. @wilw @ggreenwald you left out "Obama"
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) June 8, 2013
@wilw @ggreenwald You forgot to mention the Executive and Judicial branches.
— Kevin Siekierski (@KevinSiekierski) June 8, 2013
https://twitter.com/Mr_Sterling/status/343472955331858433
@wilw @greywulf @ggreenwald don't leave our president(S) out of this.
— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) June 8, 2013
https://twitter.com/StealieW/status/343484851783102464
https://twitter.com/Mr_Sterling/status/343488908899786752
https://twitter.com/DeadOnToilet/status/343496985023758336
@greywulf @wilw @ggreenwald obama is sitting around downplaying and defending this bullshit. He's just as guilty as anyone.
— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) June 8, 2013
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@greywulf @wilw @ggreenwald I just want to make sure our past unpopular president and our current popular one get equal blame.
— NewbieDM (@newbiedm) June 8, 2013
https://twitter.com/b737officeview/status/343476645010751488
@wilw @ggreenwald Didn't you vote for Obama and other democrats who are in congress?
— Richard Zowie (@richardzowie) June 8, 2013
.@wilw agreed. Obama has no choice, the evil GOP in Congress is forcing him to use his Executive power to spy on us. #forward! @ggreenwald
— Lefty Bollocks (@LeftyBollocks) June 8, 2013
https://twitter.com/SJ_Simons/status/343477541950083072
Will President Obama get that missing shout-out if he authorizes the FBI and Justice Department to begin a criminal investigation into the leak? An unnamed source told Fox News today that a criminal report has been filed, and not by Congress.