With Repeated Reports Of Long-Term NSA Abuses, Does Anyone Actually Believe NSA Is Following The Law Today?
from the simple-question dept
Throughout this process of discussing the NSA's surveillance efforts, thanks to Ed Snowden and his whistleblowing, defenders have continued to insist (1) that the NSA isn't abusing its powers and (2) that there's tremendous oversight of the NSA's activities, mainly by FISC. Yet, with this week's declassification of a second FISC ruling in which a judge detailed major, long-term abuses by the NSA, with no consequences, does anyone actually believe the NSA has stopped abusing its powers to violate everyone's privacy?As a reminder, back in September it was revealed that FISC judge Reggie Walton was pretty angry about abuses by the NSA:
The minimization procedures… have been so frequently and systemically violated that it can fairly be said that this critical element of the overall BR regime has never functioned effectively.Then there was Judge John Bates' ruling just revealed this week:
...the government acknowledges that NSA exceeded the scope of authorized acquisition continuously during the more than [redacted] years of acquisition under these orders.These are different violations. And, yet, in both cases, they seemed to indicate rather systematic abuses by the NSA, and very little concern on the part of the NSA to get it right. After all, these problems appeared to go on for years, and were either unreported or not clearly reported to the FISC, which could do little about it.
And that raises a key question, pointed out by Steve Vladeck -- Given these two relatively recent rulings, detailing systematic, widespread and long-term abuses by the NSA in violation of the law, how can any NSA defender claim with a straight face that the NSA is now in compliance?
There may well be explanations for each of the compliance incidents documented in the Walton and Bates opinions; that’s not the point. Instead, the larger message that comes through these newly disclosed opinions is the pervasiveness of compliance incidents, and the extent to which careful supervision by the FISA Court, while apparently able to produce some accountability in response to such incidents (as in the opinions released yesterday), simply does not seem to have mooted these concerns. That is to say, with every new FISA Court opinion responding to new compliance incidents, it becomes that much harder to trust that compliance concerns are ancient history.Of course, when there's no real "cost" for being non-compliant, why would the NSA care that much about being compliant?
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Filed Under: compliance, fisa court, fisc, nsa
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It would be nice if we didn't have NSA defenders quite so far up the NSA's ass. As was mentioned in another article they sound like NSA publicists rather than oversight.
Would you like to know more....
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I remember right after The Big Terrorist Attacks™ watching Congressional hearings where this spokesperson for the FBI was saying that we didn't need new laws, expansion of old laws, or other new crap (like the DHS), we just needed to interact and do our jobs better. I wonder what ever happened to him.
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Re:
NSA and its previous equivalents have been listening (illegally) to peoples phone calls since phones existed.
(Charlie Chaplin's phone was regularly monitored without a warrant or any sort of evidence other than he "sort of looked wrong - same for Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and endless others)
They've been opening mail since the Pony Express (again illegally) and they're just continuing what they've always been doing its just that now its easier to collect data in bulk via the internet.
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Bridges In Brooklyn for sale, built by a famous bridge designer
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Damage Contro....full swing
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Re: Damage Contro....full swing
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You mean
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Re: You mean
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You know what they say, 'The 567th time's the charm'
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so the nsa teaches kids to say FUCK THE LAW
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@4
half your problem is your watching tv ( being spie don by the tv i might add ROFL , which is why they want digital boxes and all the drm on it ...and to make it illegal for you to tamper)
and maybe the other half is your here yapping and doing notta , nothing but stating the obvious.
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@4 ......idiot
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The NSA should hook up with the mayor of Toronto.
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I am sending a link to a an article by Sheldon Wolin which everyone should read it:
A Kind of Fascism Is Replacing Our Democracy
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0718-07.htm
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Sigh
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Re: Sigh
3 ----------
half a pound of ---------------
12 cans of --------------
a packet of ---------------
and 4 -----------s of -----------
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Re: Re: Sigh
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@9
i call then what he says from your actions to be a validation of it....and i got think!ng y0ur a l@wyer or NS@ typ3 whom needs us to typ3 p3rfectly so you can h0ld !t against him/me/us/any0n3 in da n3ar future....
have a nice fcking day
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Re: @9
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Re: @9
I count six mistakes in this sentence fragment alone.
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There is very much a cost for being non-compliant. They are only beginning to realize the cost now as Congress drafts bills to limit the authority granted by the Patriot Act.
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NSA: Sorry about that. Oh by the way, would you mind re-authorizing the bulk data collection plans that we've been abusing?
FISC: Sure thing! Here you go!
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