
“The president is at least as fond of passive constructions as Chris ‘Mistakes Were Made’ Christie. ‘Too often,’ Obama said, ‘new authorities were instituted without adequate public debate.’ But before the Snowden revelations, the American public didn’t know that the administration considered all Americans’ call records ‘relevant’ to terrorism investigations under section 215 of the Patriot Act–and Obama liked it that way. Still, Obama pointed out, his review group on NSA surveillance found ‘no indication that this database has been intentionally abused.’ In the speech, Obama congratulated himself for maintaining a ‘healthy skepticism towards our surveillance programs.'”
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