Is anybody at NSA spying on our enemies?

(My new American Thinker post)

I hope that they didn't tell President Obama this one:  

"The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday.   
The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.  The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, which was held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.   
The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories -- "leadership intentions", "threats to financial system", "foreign policy objectives" and "human rights".   At that time, Benedict XVI was Pope, suggesting that the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy."

So we were spying on President Pena-Nieto of Mexico before he became president.   And now we were listening to Archbishop Jorge Mario before he became Pope Francis. 

I really don't get this!  Are we doing one leader a day over at NSA?  Are we just checking boxes from A to Z? 

I have a question:  Were they listening to our enemies  - such as Castro in Cuba and Maduro in Venezuela or Morales in Bolivia?  All I hear is that we were spying on our allies.   

Don't get me wrong.  Spying is part of the game and that's OK with me.   

I repeat my question:  Were we listening to our enemies?  I would feel a lot better about the NSA if I hear that they were listening to our enemies as much as friends.    
P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

Online Politics Radio at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

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President Obama should do a 'Bay of Pigs' on ObamaCare

(My new American Thinker post)

Here is a bit of presidential history that they should review in the White House:

1961-- President Kennedy borrowed a play from the Truman playbook and took responsibility for The Bay of Pigs.

We need something similar from President Obama in a couple of fronts; ObamaCare & the NSA. 

He needs to take the blame for the website and say that spying on Europeans is part of protecting us from people who blow up buildings.

Instead, we are getting "excuses" and 'word games":

1) Valerie Jarret is now "tweeting" and blaming insurance companies for people losing their insurance:  

"FACT: Nothing in #Obamacare forces people out of their health plans. No change is required unless insurance companies change existing plans."

2) Jay Carney painfully admitted that some will lose their insurance. 

3) The NSA people are furious that they are getting thrown under the bus for carrying out orders, according to The LA Times.

Here is the problem.  It makes President Obama look bad to have his staff running around playing word games.

Taking ownership and responsibility won't make "the Captain Renault of Casablanca Europeans" happy or solve all of ObamaCare's problems but it will establish that someone is in charge.

We desperately need to know that someone is in charge. The plane is flying through a nasty storm and some of us don't know if the pilot is in the cockpit or sharing next year's March Madness predictions online. 

P. S. You can hear CANTO TALK here & follow me on Twitter @ scantojr.

Online Politics Radio at Blog Talk Radio with Silvio Canto Jr on BlogTalkRadio

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Babalu: “Las monjas se van a enojar con Obama” for spying on Pope Francis

(My new Babalu post)   

I hope that they didn't tell President Obama about this one:

"The National Security Agency spied on the future Pope Francis before and during the Vatican conclave at which he was chosen to succeed Benedict XVI, it was claimed on Wednesday.
The American spy agency monitored telephone calls made to and from the residence in Rome where the then Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stayed during the conclave, the secret election at which cardinals chose him as pontiff on March 13.
The claims were made by Panorama, an Italian weekly news magazine, which said that the NSA monitored the telephone calls of many bishops and cardinals at the Vatican in the lead-up to the conclave, which was held amid tight security in the Sistine Chapel.
The information gleaned was then reportedly divided into four categories — “leadership intentions”, “threats to financial system”, “foreign policy objectives” and “human rights”.
At that time, Benedict XVI was Pope, suggesting that the Vatican may also have been monitored during the last few weeks of his papacy."  

My guess is that the White House will distance President Obama from this.

It's one thing to get the Germans or the Europeans angry.  It's quite another thing to spy on the Pope before he became Pope.

This is not going to go down well with Catholic nuns!  Watch for the nuns to lineup outside the White House ready to slap President Obama's hands.

Let me tell you something from personal experience.  There is nothing more scary in the planet than an angry nun with a ruler!

P.S. By the way, I miss Alvarez-Guedes on days like this one!  Can you imagine what he would say about the President of the US spying on a bishop waiting to become Pope?

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Babalu: Communist Cuba “no se puede arreglar” and that is why change is near

(My new Babalu post)

It must be tough being Raul Castro these days. He tries this or that but Cuba is still a disaster. He yells at the younger generation but they are not paying attention. He wants people to be more productive but they are not.

Cuba can not be fixed. There is no version of a "Perestroika cubano" around the corner. It won't work in Cuba anymore than it did in the USSR.

It's over in Cuba. We're just waiting for the referee to blow the whistle and say that the game is officially over.      

Carlos Alberto Montaner discussed Cuba's currency problems in his recent article.  He wrote this:

"What can Raúl Castro do to really straighten up Cuba's economy?Unquestionably, he must bury that asinine way to produce and organize society.The system cannot be fixed.Mikhail Gorbachev, who also tried to save communism, ended up admitting that such a goal was impossible, as happened in practically all of eastern Europe.Why doesn't Raúl Castro do this?For three reasons at least, I suppose: for muddled ideological convictions that he has never shaken off; for clinging to power, and - the weightiest - for being emotionally incapable of accepting that he has spent 80 years defending wrong ideas.It must be very hard to admit that the work of one's whole life was a perfect blunder that generated massive damage."

We will continue to watch Cuba and Cubans suffer more and more. There is no happy ending to this tragedy that the Castro brothers started in 1959.

The only good news is that the end is near.  It is a lot closer that you think.

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