The NSA review panel didn't answer the real question: was any of this legal?

[marmar]

The NSA review panel didn't answer the real question: was any of this legal?
President Obama's NSA review is cast as a set of 'policy recommendations' as if this is all just a political debate

Marcy Wheeler
theguardian.com, Thursday 19 December 2013


President Obama's NSA review panel makes it clear that many of the things NSA has been doing are bad from a policy perspective. But the real question we should be asking is: are they legal?

Early leaks about the review panel suggested it had found all the NSA's (and other agencies they imply, such as FBI) activities to be legal. That's based, in part, on this statement:

Significantly, and in stark contrast to the pre-Fisa era, the Review Group found no evidence of illegality or other abuse of authority for the purpose of targeting domestic political activity. This is of central importance, because one of the greatest dangers of government surveillance is the potential to use what is learned to undermine democratic governance. On the other hand, as discussed later in this report, there have been serious and persistent instances of noncompliance in the Intelligence Community's implementation of its authorities. Even if unintentional, these instances of noncompliance raise serious concerns about the Intelligence Community's capacity to manage its authorities in an effective and lawful manner.

But notice that statement did not say the panel had found everything to be legal. On the contrary, it applied that judgment only to illegality or abuse "for the purposes of targeting domestic political activity". That leaves open a whole slew of potential abuse, even illegal activities, targeting Americans for reasons outside of politics.

That's what the report should have tackled, but it didn't. Instead, we have tame sounding "policy recommendations" as if this is all just a matter of political disagreement over the budget or farm bill. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/19/nsa-review-panel-report-legal-questions

[Demo_Chris]

1. Laws no longer apply. nt

[Pholus]

2. We built them to operate above the law...

for a specific, national security reason. But they mission creeped yet stayed above the law.