Apparently James Clapper And The NSA Don't See Eye-To-Eye On Transparency

from the that-could-get-interesting dept

For the most part, following the fallout from the NSA surveillance leaks, the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, and the head of the NSA, Keith Alexander, have seemed almost interchangeable. While Clapper technically ranks above Alexander in the administration pecking order, both have basically presented the same (dubious) arguments in favor of the NSA's activities, and their statements have been in such lockstep that you could exchange quotes from one for the other without noticing much, if any, difference. However, in a recent Washington Post profile of Clapper, it appears that there may at least be some cracking of the facade of unity. While it's not a major part of the Clapper profile, the article, by David Ignatius, does note that when that important 2011 FISA court ruling was declassified a couple of months ago, the NSA wanted to redact large parts of the decision, and Clapper actually pushed back, demanding greater transparency, before having his own top lawyer redo the redactions, so that much less ended up being redacted:
One example is Clapper’s pressure on the NSA to disclose more about its surveillance programs. The NSA initially wanted to “redact” (a fancy word for censor) far more of a 2011 ruling by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that the agency had engaged in illegally broad surveillance. Clapper thought NSA lawyers were suppressing too much, so he instructed his general counsel, Robert Litt, to go back through the document and make public more information. Clapper ignored NSA and Justice Department protests, including to the White House, and backed Litt’s less-redacted version.
Of course, this story leaves out the part about how pretty much everyone, including Clapper, initially fought against having any part of this decision released until they were forced to do so by the EFF in a lawsuit.

That said, it's still interesting to see that, when it comes to that situation, Clapper is at least willing to go against the NSA behind closed doors, even if he's in lock-step with them publicly.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: james clapper, nsa, nsa surveillance, robert litt, transparency


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it
    identicon
    out_of_the_blue, 1 Nov 2013 @ 10:59am

    Oh, joy! A schism in enemy ranks! ... Or, just a PR ploy.

    Until Clapper is in jail for known crimes, all short of that is irrelevant. -- Except for gives Mike something to re-write about.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2013 @ 11:12am

    I couldn't help but think "Nixon tapes" while I was reading this. Go ahead, release all the tapes... i mean rulings. I'm sure the public will understand when they listen... read them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2013 @ 11:34am

    > Clapper ignored NSA and Justice Department protests

    Every now and then I see mentioned the name of DoJ in the NSA scandals. Sounds to me like Holder is pretty deep into this, too, and this is being investigated way too little.

    Alexander, Clapper, AND Holder - all need to go. Obama should also resign. Nixon resigned for much less.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mike Acker (profile), 1 Nov 2013 @ 11:36am

    what are we gonna do about it

    the sad part in all this news this summer is that while we can point out the lies, deception, and greed, in the end Ugly Sam is a MONSTER. and that leaves the question: what we gonna do about it ?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2013 @ 12:51pm

    We're going to do what comes natural to us. We're going to bitch about it on the internet.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2013 @ 1:58pm

    "Clapper thought NSA lawyers were suppressing too much, so he instructed his general counsel ... to go back through the document and make public more information."

    One small step for [that] man, [is] one giant leap for [his]kind....

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 1 Nov 2013 @ 9:29pm

    I'm beginning to think all of this whining about the NSA or the FBI or the DIA is nothing more than business as usual in the routine turf wars and political theater in D.C. Mr. Snowden's revelations appear to have, more than anything else, turned on those 10,000 watt Klieg Lights aimed at the alphabet soup agencies that have been doing this crap for decades. How about we shut them all down and start over. This is getting ridiculous.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.