&gt;Do you have any proof he had decided to take this course of action before he took office when he was making campaign promises?<p>Does it really matter when he decided to take this course of action? I think what matters is that he did.<p>&gt;I&#x27;m under the impression that the Pentagon and the intelligence agencies are extremely good at drumming up scary daily reports which wear down any president&#x27;s resolve.<p>That&#x27;s no excuse, it doesn&#x27;t justify his actions. Obama was selected from a country of 300 million people to lead the nation, it&#x27;s perfectly justifiable to expect for him to be above being manipulated by &quot;scary daily reports&quot;.
And here he is, step by step turning the US into an Orwellian police state (God, I wish this was hyperbole).<p>Also, I seriously doubt the NSA has been bugging Obama for permission to hand over their data to various LE agencies.