Telcos Refused To Sign On To 'Let Us Be Transparent About Surveillance' Letter

FISA Order To Verizon Expires Today, No One Wants To Say If It's Being Renewed

from the because-it-is dept

Fri, Jul 19th 2013 10:27am — Mike Masnick

The very first of the Ed Snowden leaks was a FISA court order to Verizon, ordering it to hand over information on every single phone call, on an "ongoing, daily basis." That order expired on July 19, 2013. Today. It quickly came out that the FISA court has been approving nearly identical orders every 90 days for about seven years, though the defenders of the program like to use that "it's only for 90 days" excuse to suggest there's "oversight." Still, given that the existence of this effort is now actually public, plenty of people are wondering whether or not the FISA court issued the expected followup. Of course, no one who knows wants to say anything.

The Obama administration is refusing to say whether it will seek to renew a court order that permits the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone records on millions of Verizon customers when it expires at the end of this week.

Officials declined to discuss what action they intend to take about the order at the center of the current surveillance scandal, which formally expires at 5pm Friday.

That's because it's almost certain that it's already been renewed and rubber stamped by the FISA court. The White House told Guardian reporters to ask the Justice Department. Guess where that went:

The White House referred queries to the Justice Department. "We have no announcement at this time," said Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon. The NSA and office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to questions.

A spokesman for the Fisa court, Sheldon Snook, said the court "respectfully declines to comment".

In other words: please, please, go away and can we hope this story dies down by the time the next 90-day window rolls around?

Thankfully, some members of Congress have told the White House not to seek a renewal, but it seems unlikely that the White House will do anything, other than keep on sucking up all that data.

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Filed Under: business records, fisa court, fisc, metadata, section 215, telcos
Companies: at&t, sprint, verizon

15 Comments

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Reader Comments

The First Word

“

Update - Renewal Declassified

http://1.usa.gov/12ThYlT

—Markus Hopkins

”

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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2013 @ 10:45am

Get back to work, Proles!

Sincerely,
Big Brother and the Inner Party
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- Anonymous Coward, 20 Jul 2013 @ 5:24pm
  
  Re:
  haha
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Akari Mizunashi (profile), 19 Jul 2013 @ 10:57am

"Court" order?

I wonder who wears the jester outfit.
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:18am
  
  Re:
  Everyone! The US Government is being run like an asshat wearing a clowncar full of self-righteous morons.
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out_of_the_blue, 19 Jul 2013 @ 10:58am

"some members of Congress have told the White House"
You are again imagining (or pretending to imagine) divisions within The Establishment when none actually exist. The most that "some members of Congress" do is make noises trying to create the illusion of opposition. Elitist Ivy League grads are particularly apt to fall for this scam: as supposed "Insiders" they regard themselves as having influence in DC, but at best are only wrangling for larger portions of the spoils. Rest of us are little fooled by this -- can't even call it theater, it's at best a puppet show.
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- Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:08am
  
  Re: "some members of Congress have told the White House"
  So you think that all 535 members of Congress are in lockstep with the White House on every issue, and only pretend to disagree?
  
  I can buy that for some members. But not all of them.
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  - Michael, 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:12am
    
    Re: Re: "some members of Congress have told the White House"
    It's pretty reasonable that some portion of them died years ago and the White House replaced them with robots.
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Ninja (profile), 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:04am

Even if they renew it'll be a secret order based on secret interpretations right? So nobody will ever know unless other Snowdens pop up. Pathetic.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:21am

The Government: "We have no announcement at this time," said Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon.

The FISA Court: Sheldon Snook, said the court "respectfully declines to comment".

In other words, it was renewed and they don't wish to reveal that they did. When someone doesn't respond, it means that they have something to hide. If they didn't have something to hide, they would answer.

Looks like the Verizon order was renewed.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:46am

I agree with #8 that in all probability it has been renewed. It has been the standard to stonewall and attempt to prevent any info on what is being done anytime something might make them look bad. This fills that bill to a tee.
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Vidiot (profile), 19 Jul 2013 @ 11:57am

No respect
I don't buy the "respectfully" jazz... I'm thinking "contemptuously".
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Jul 2013 @ 12:00pm

it's no good telling the White House, the person behind the White House is the one that needs to be told. Obama is basically the oil rag, whoever is pulling his chain is the engineer. he's the one (and his cohorts!)that needs tyo be told and reined in, before the country goes so far down this ridiculous path of destruction that it cant get back!!
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nbcart (profile), 19 Jul 2013 @ 1:08pm

If the FISA order is not renewed how would Verizon replace the significant revenue stream they receive for being a "partner" in all of this?
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Markus Hopkins (profile), 19 Jul 2013 @ 2:46pm

Update - Renewal Declassified
http://1.usa.gov/12ThYlT
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JeffR, 19 Jul 2013 @ 3:37pm

They renewed it and announced that it was renenwed
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/19/politics/nsa-surveillance/
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