Breaking: Court Filings Show NSA Broke Rules on Call-Tracking Data for Three Years; Misled Judges

[Hissyspit]

Source: Associated Press / NBC News

Bloomberg News ?@BloombergNews 11m NSA violated restrictions on checking telephone records, misled judges on how data was used | http://bloom.bg/1aoazkR

The Associated Press ?@AP 13m MORE: Federal officials release documents showing misuse of secret domestic spying program: http://apne.ws/1eBb65M -SS

NSA Phone Records Spying Violated Court Rules for Years

By Chris Strohm - Sep 10, 2013 4:32 PM ET

The National Security Agency for about three years violated restrictions on checking U.S. telephone records for surveillance and misled judges on how the data was used, intelligence officials said.

The agency on a daily basis improperly checked a select list of phone numbers against databases containing millions of call records, without meeting the necessary standard, according to documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to privacy groups today in response to lawsuits.

The violations occurred between May 2006 and January 2009 and involved checks on as many as 16,000 phone numbers, including some based in the U.S., said two senior intelligence officials with direct knowledge of how the program operated. They asked not to be identified in order to speak about sensitive matters.

The new disclosures add to evidence that U.S. intelligence agencies have violated legal and administrative restrictions on domestic spying. Lawmakers are considering new restraints on intelligence gathering programs.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-10/nsa-phone-records-spying-violated-court-rules-for-years.html

[msanthrope]

1. Notice the time period? Quite interesting. nt

[questionseverything]

7. and then there is this

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-administration-had-restrictions-on-nsa-reversed-in-2011/2013/09/07/c26ef658-0fe5-11e3-85b6-d27422

[msanthrope]

9. "Page not found." nt

[questionseverything]

11. ....

The court decision allowed the NSA “to query the vast majority” of its e-mail and phone call databases using the e-mail addresses and phone numbers of Americans and legal residents without a warrant, according to Bates’s opinion. The queries must be “reasonably likely to yield foreign intelligence information.” And the results are subject to the NSA’s privacy rules.

The court in 2008 imposed a wholesale ban on such searches at the government’s request, said Alex Joel, civil liberties protection officer at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The government included this restriction “to remain consistent with NSA policies and procedures that NSA applied to other authorized collection activities,” he said.

But in 2011, to more rapidly and effectively identify relevant foreign intelligence communications, “we did ask the court” to lift the ban, ODNI general counsel Robert S. Litt said in an interview. “We wanted to be able to do it,” he said, referring to the searching of Americans’ communications without a warrant.

[Maedhros]

15. One can Google it and find this link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obama-administration-had-restrictions-on-nsa-reversed-in-2011/2013/09/07/c26ef658-0fe5-11e3-85b6-d27422650fd5_story_1.html

which still works.

[Jackpine Radical]

18. Jeez. They disappeared it already.

Here's an interesting source:

http://jurist.org/paperchase/2013/09/declassified-materials-show-nsa-surveilence-restrictions-reversed-in-2011.php#

Declassified materials show NSA surveilence restrictions reversed in 2011
Peter Snyder at 11:53 AM ET

Photo source or description
[JURIST] According to a report [WP report] released by the Washington Post Saturday, the Obama administration won permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) [official websites] court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency (NSA) [official website] use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails. The revelations come from materials [text, PDF] recently declassified by the Obama administration, including a 2011 opinion by the chief judge of the FISC regarding section 702 [text, PDF] of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The decision allowed for the NSA to retain US communications the agency intercepted for an additional year and perform searches of e-mail and phone call databases using e-mail addresses and phone numbers of US citizens. According to the report, the 2011 decision overturned a 2008 ban on government requests for searches of such databases.

The revelations surrounding the NSA surveillance programs [JURIST backgrounder] have sparked worldwide debate and controversy. Last week The Guardian [official website] obtained files showing [JURIST report] that the NSA and its UK counterpart, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) [official website], compromised the guarantees that Internet companies have given consumers to reassure them that their communications are encrypted. The files, published [NYT report] in partnership with the New York Times and ProPublica [official websites], reveal a 10-year NSA decryption program, making data through Internet cable taps exploitable. In June the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), in conjunction with the New York Civil Liberties Union [advocacy websites] filed suit [JURIST report] against the NSA challenging its recently revealed phone data collection. Although the president and top officials have defended the surveillance as a lawful counterterrorism measure, several US lawmakers have called for a review [JURIST report] of the government's surveillance activity in light of recent reports revealing phone and Internet monitoring.

[99th_Monkey]

2. Nobody cares about the NSA anymore. It's all about Syria now. nt

Not sayin' it's a "conspiracy" (air quotes) or anything unkind about
Obama.

but it is damn convenient for the NSA, Obama, all those private
contractors that were getting dragged into the spotlignt, et. al.

[TxGrandpa]

4. Yes!!! This Syrian crisis came up at the right time!!!

It's been on the burner for several years and all of a sudden became critical.

[msanthrope]

10. You think Bashir Assad gassed his own people to help President Obama? That's some serious CT. nt

[99th_Monkey]

12. I didn't say that, nor did I mean that.

I even expressly said that I DO NOT mean that. Did you miss that part?

Not sayin' it's a "conspiracy" (air quotes) or anything unkind about
Obama.

OK, maybe the airquotes were a little bit saying that. I'm guilty as sin. My bad.

Flag me, flog me, defame me ... if you must.

[Jackpine Radical]

19. This will suffice:

[JDPriestly]

24. The gassing started long before the sudden need to punish it.

[avaistheone1]

25. Just a coinky dink...

[Ocelot]

3. Uh-oh, Obama's Syria distraction is on the back burner now, what's he going to do?

Quick, the White House needs a new dog to wag. What's it gonna be?

[Hydra]

5. *lmao*

I was told authoritatively that there was only *1* violation found by the FISA court and they corrected it immediately.

So many "experts" here lately.

[AzDar]

6. Shut that mutha down.

[felix_numinous]

8. K&R

[sakabatou]

13. NSA: We're above the rules

[nashville_brook]

14. k and r

[KoKo]

16. Thanks for the post...was Breaking News Today....

RT covered it...but, I figured no one would care..because of the Syria War.

Lot's is going to be covered up...or just little attention because of that. But, life goes on and those who watch Democracy Now and get news from other sources (including ...believe it or not Financial News from Bloomberg) do manage...(if they want to or have time...or can deal with it) to be INFORMED.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.

[Fearless]

20. No kidding? You don't say?

So this means who was right all along?

[Jackpine Radical]

21. I don't think this one is gonna let up for a while.

[WillyT]

22. K & R !!!

[WestSeattle2]

23. Color me shocked. This crap will continue until the bureaucrats

responsible start going to prison. Ten year minimum sentence should send a message.