[Infowarrior] - National Security Bosses Still Claiming It Would Violate National Security To Tell You If They Violate Your Privacy

[Richard Forno]

National Security Bosses Still Claiming It Would Violate National Security To Tell You If They Violate Your Privacy

from the whose-security-are-we-talking-about? dept

Via Julian Sanchez we learn that Senator Ron Wyden has released some updated responses from our national intelligence bosses concerning the questions that Wyden (and a few other Senators) have been asking for years. It's been pretty clear that a "secret" interpretation under the FISA Amendments Act (related to the Patriot Act) has meant that the NSA is scooping up tons of American communications, even as its mandate is that it only cover foreign intelligence—and Wyden has been pushing for more information. 

It appears that there are some pretty significant loopholes that have allowed the NSA to go a lot further. For example, it isn't allowed to collect information on Americans if "it's known at the time of acquisition" that the communications are domestic. So as long as it doesn't look when it's acquiring (but does look later) there's no problem. Similarly, it appears that the secret interpretation also means as long as the target of the investigation being conducted -- and not necessarily the person whose communication is being intercepted -- is a foreign terrorist, the communication is fair game. That is, so long as the NSA can claim that they're collecting the information to go after Al Qaeda, they can claim that it's valid to intercept almost anything, as it "targets" foreign communications, even if it's collecting purely domestic communications. The key to all of this is reports that the NSA is likely collecting a massive chunk of information, possibly including pretty much all mobile phone records. Senator Wyden keeps asking about how many Americans have had their data collected, and what interpretation the NSA is using. These seem like completely valid questions, but the NSA and James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, keep refusing to answer. 

After the NSA responded to yet another request from Wyden for answers to these questions, Wyden once again demanded answers from James Clapper, the Director of National Security. Wyden, along with Senators Jeff Merkeley, Tom Udall and Mark Udall, sent a letter simply asking Clapper to respond to four simple questions -- many of which could be answered with a simple yes or no:

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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121210/13172621339/national-security-bosses-still-claiming-it-would-violate-national-security-to-tell-you-if-they-violate-your-privacy.shtml

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