Last week, I wrote about the need to get to the bottom of one critical question, “whether Obama’s statements are intentionally obtuse and misleading, or just an outright lie.” I think the answer of this question will ultimately determine the fate of the Obama Administration, and whether or not he will finish his term. Knowing that Edward Snowden’s application of sunlight to the NSA’s unconstitutional spying apparatus has more revelations to come, it appears to me that the public is beginning to wise up to the “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them.” Sadly, as a U.S. Senator, Al Franken — the author of that book and its critique of the right-wing punditocracy — has taken to defending the lies and the lying liars who tell them when they are told by Democrats.

But a spied-upon United States public (not to mention a spied-upon European Union) does not take kindly to liars or their apologists, and the Democrats are alienating both their friends and enemies. The first casualty of this growing scandal will clearly be the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who outright lied to Congress back in March:

Now here is Cenk Uygur of the The Young Turks taking Clapper apart:

Even more powerful, however, is Glenn Greenwald’s recognition of the seriousness of this felony offense — not Snowden’s, but Clapper’s:

That Clapper fundamentally misled Congress is beyond dispute. The DNI himself has now been forced by our stories to admit that his statement was, in his words, “clearly erroneous” and to apologize. But he did this only once our front-page revelations forced him to do so: in other words, what he’s sorry about is that he got caught lying to the Senate. And as Salon’s David Sirota adeptly documented on Friday, Clapper is still spouting falsehoods as he apologizes and attempts to explain why he did it.

How is this not a huge scandal? Intentionally deceiving Congress is a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison for each offense. Reagan administration officials were convicted of misleading Congress as part of the Iran-contra scandal and other controversies, and sports stars have been prosecuted by the Obama DOJ based on allegations they have done so.

Beyond its criminality, lying to Congress destroys the pretense of oversight. Obviously, members of Congress cannot exercise any actual oversight over programs which are being concealed by deceitful national security officials.

That Clapper has admitted to lying to Congress, or giving them the “least untruthful” answer he could to avoid their oversight is astounding. This isn’t going away, people. Nor will this rest with Clapper. Surely he was just following orders and playing the game of lying to Congress and the American people, all to protect the American Empire. But the question remains, was Obama playing the same game, and if so, will we stand for it?  Regardless of whether this works its way up to the President — already on record with worse lies than either Nixon or Clinton — Glenn Greenwald points us to a taste of where this is headed. He references this Washington Post article by Greg Miller, who writes that “details that have emerged from the exposure of hundreds of pages of previously classified NSA documents indicate that public assertions about these programs by senior U.S. officials have also often been misleading, erroneous or simply false.” Writes Greenwald, “Please re-read that sentence. It’s not just Clapper, but multiple “senior US officials”, whose statements have been proven false by our reporting and Edward Snowden’s disclosures.”

Drip. Drip. Drip.  Tell us, Mr. President, what did you know, and when did you know it?

For the rest of you, go read Greenwald’s full summary of the impact of Snowden’s revelations to date. Then do something about it.