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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama administration declassifies order directing Verizon to turn over Americans' phone records
The Obama administration has declassified a secret order directing Verizon Communications to turn over a vast number of Americans’ phone records, and it plans to disclose the document Wednesday morning in time for a Senate hearing, according to senior U.S. officials.
The order was issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to a subsidiary of Verizon in April. Officials described it as the formal order underlying the directive that was disclosed in June by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said the court order released by Snowden was a “secondary” order. They expressed hope that the document being released Wednesday will shed light on how the U.S. government obtains communications records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the restrictions placed on surveillance programs.
The release is set to come in advance of a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee at which officials from the Justice Department, the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence will face questions about NSA surveillance programs and the collection of Americans’ communications data. At a similar hearing by the House Intelligence Committee this month, lawmakers expressed deep skepticism over the NSA’s bulk collection of phone records.
The rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/2013/07/30/88c62600-f97f-11e2-afc1-c850c6ee5af8_story.html?
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nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)I think Obama wants the stuff out in the open. But he can't be seen going hog wild.
Again, Snowden's getting the game moving.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)I will be the first to grant you that
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)That the Admin is offering the files, as they should.
The Magistrate
(95,243 posts)
Cha
(296,872 posts)
BlueCheese
(2,522 posts)... "speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly".
The irony is rather entertaining.
think
(11,641 posts)
progressoid
(49,951 posts)
matthews
(497 posts)KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)
Hydra
(14,459 posts)Let's see what this next round brings. Last round was sub par- "Trust us!" and "Morales is just a fake president!"
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)That's... interesting.
deurbano
(2,894 posts)"Obama defends NSA surveillance but acknowledges some limits are inevitable"
By Pete Yost and Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press
07/31/2013
<<"We are open to re-evaluating this program in ways that can perhaps provide greater confidence and public trust that this is in fact a program that achieves both privacy protections and national security," Robert Litt, counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told skeptical members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The hearing came one week after a surprisingly close vote in the House that would have killed the phone surveillance program. It barely survived, but lawmakers promised that change was coming.
This newest privacy-vs.- security debate was touched off when former government contract systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked classified documents exposing National Security Agency programs that store years of phone records on every American. That revelation prompted the most significant reconsideration yet of the vast surveillance powers Congress granted the president after 9/11.
The administration intended to keep the telephone program a secret forever and, for more than a decade, few in Congress showed any interest in reining in the surveillance. Snowden's leaks abruptly changed the calculus on Capitol Hill.
"We have a lot of good information out there that helps the American public understand these programs, but it all came out late," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said in a rebuke of government secrecy. "It all came out in response to a leaker. There was no organized plan for how we rationally declassify this so that the American people can participate in the debate."...
Several Democrats promised bills that would provide tighter controls or more transparency. Proposals include eliminating the FBI's ability to seize data without a court order, changing the way judges are appointed to the surveillance court, and appointing an attorney to argue against the government in secret proceedings before that court. Another would force the government to reveal how many Americans have had their information swept up in surveillance.
On Wednesday, the national security establishment sought to reassure Congress that its surveillance powers were rigorously monitored and narrowly crafted while simultaneously leaving open the possibility of some new limitations.
To that end, the administration declassified documents about the telephone program. But the documents revealed no legal analysis that underpinned the widespread surveillance. And the redacted documents show only in broad strokes how NSA officials use the data.
For the first time, however, the government acknowledged publicly that using what it calls "hop analysis," it can analyze the phone calls of millions of Americans in the hunt for just one suspected terrorist. That's because NSA analysts can look at not just a suspect's phone records, but also the records of everyone he calls, everyone who calls those people and everyone who calls those people.
If the average person calls 40 unique people, three-hop analysis could allow the government to mine the records of 2.5 million Americans when investigating one suspected terrorist.
"What's being described as a very narrow program is really a very broad program," said Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate.
John Inglis, the NSA's deputy director, conceded the point but said, in practice, such broad analysis was rare."We have to compare the theory to the practice," he said.>>
"We are open to re-evaluating this program in ways that can perhaps provide greater confidence and public trust that this is in fact a program that achieves both privacy protections and national security," Robert Litt, counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, told skeptical members of the Senate Judiciary Committee."
Too late, assholes. They will re-evaluate and tell better lies. I don't believe for one second they will change a damn thing.
blkmusclmachine
(16,149 posts)
