Former Ron Wyden aide challenges Obama’s surveillance claims

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

In a searingly critical essay, a former senior aide to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. has called out the Obama administration and the president himself for claiming Friday that he welcomed a public debate on the government’s surveillance programs and the privacy concerns they provoke.

 

Jennifer Hoelzer, a former aide to Wyden who recently left his office, harshly questioned Obama in a piece she wrote for TechDirt.com, saying she was flabbergasted to hear him say he had wanted more public scrutiny for the National Security Agency surveillance programs after Wyden had worked for years in vain to try to persuade the administration to declassify parts of the program so that debate could take place.

 

The Huffington Post first wrote about the TechDirt.com article Sunday.

 

“Really, Mr. President? Do you really expect me to believe that you give a damn about open debate and the democratic process?” she asked. “Because it seems to me if your administration was really committed to those things, your administration wouldn’t have blocked every effort to have an open debate on these issues each time the laws that your administration claims authorizes these programs came up for reauthorization, which — correct me if I am wrong — is when the democratic process recommends as the ideal time for these debates.”