So, the Washington Post is reporting that “[t]he National Security Agency has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress granted the agency broad new powers in 2008, according to an internal audit and other top-secret documents.”

As Gomer Pyle would say, “surprise, surprise, surprise.”

Most of the infractions involve unauthorized surveillance of Americans or foreign intelligence targets in the United States, both of which are restricted by statute and executive order. They range from significant violations of law to typographical errors that resulted in unintended interception of U.S. e-mails and telephone calls.

Oh those pesky typos.

The documents, provided earlier this summer to The Washington Post by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, include a level of detail and analysis that is not routinely shared with Congress or the special court that oversees surveillance. In one of the documents, agency personnel are instructed to remove details and substitute more generic language in reports to the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In one instance, the NSA decided that it need not report the unintended surveillance of Americans.
[…]
In another case, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has authority over some NSA operations, did not learn about a new collection method until it had been in operation for many months. The court ruled it unconstitutional.

So, the NSA doctors its reports to Congress (or just decides it doesn’t need to mention certain things), lies to (or at least withholds information from) the FISC that’s supposed to at least provide some limited oversight, and both accidentally and deliberately breaks the law and spies on US citizens, but it’s Edward Snowden that’s the traitor to his country?

Wasn’t it just a week ago when Obama said

“If you look at the reports … what you’re not reading about is the government actually abusing these programs … what you’re hearing about is the prospect that these could be abused,” Obama said.

Seems like we’re reading about the government “actually” abusing these programs now, mein Herr. Perhaps we can discuss it when Obama comes to town next week.

In other news, let’s hear it for Texas, now using SWAT tactics to crack down on code violations at organic farms.

Members of the local police raiding party had a search warrant for marijuana plants, which they failed to find at the Garden of Eden farm. But farm owners and residents who live on the property told a Dallas-Ft. Worth NBC station that that the real reason for the law enforcement exercise appears to have been code enforcement. The police seized “17 blackberry bushes, 15 okra plants, 14 tomatillo plants … native grasses and sunflowers,” after holding residents inside at gunpoint for at least a half-hour, property owner Shellie Smith said in a statement. The raid lasted about 10 hours, she said.

Local authorities had cited the Garden of Eden in recent weeks for code violations, including “grass that was too tall, bushes growing too close to the street, a couch and piano in the yard, chopped wood that was not properly stacked, a piece of siding that was missing from the side of the house, and generally unclean premises,” Smith’s statement said. She said the police didn’t produce a warrant until two hours after the raid began, and officers shielded their name tags so they couldn’t be identified. According to ABC affiliate WFAA, resident Quinn Eaker was the only person arrested — for outstanding traffic violations.

I, for one, applaud this crackdown on tall grass and improperly stacked wood.

I bet the NSA tipped ’em off on those illegal blackberry bushes and okra plants, too.