“The recently declassified Section 501 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) documents have been posted on the Office of the Director of National Intelligence site (ODNI). These documents include: orders and opinions of the Foreign Surveillance Court; reports to Congress; other reports; training slides and other internal documents. More information about this as well as links to… Continue Reading
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Introducing a Public Advocate into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Courts
Introducing a Public Advocate into the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act’s Courts: – Select Legal Issues. Andrew Nolan , Legislative Attorney; Richard M. Thompson II , Legislative Attorney; Vivian S. Chu, Legislative Attorney, October 25, 2013. “Recent revelations about the size and scope of government foreign surveillance efforts have prompted some to criticize the level of scrutiny that the courts – established under the… Continue Reading
EPIC – Leahy and Sensenbrenner Introduce USA FREEDOM Act
“The Democratic Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Republican author of the Patriot Act have introduced the USA FREEDOM Act, which would reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and limit NSA surveillance activities. A bi-partisan coalition, including 17 Senators and 70 Members of Congress, have joined as original co-sponsors. Key provisions of the FREEDOM… Continue Reading
Senators Call for Public Report by IC Inspector General on NSA Surveillance
“A bipartisan group of Senators, including the Chairman and Ranking Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have called for a full-scale review of the use of surveillance authorities by the intelligence community. The Senators emphasized that the findings and conclusions of this review be made public to “help promote greater oversight, transparency, and public accountability.”… Continue Reading
EPIC – Foreign Intelligence Court Releases Controversial Opinion on Domestic Telephone Records Program
“The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) has released an Opinion, justifying the NSA’s telephone record collection program. In the Opinion, Judge Claire Eagan states that “there is no Fourth Amendment impediment to the collection” of all domestic call detail records. Judge Eagan also concluded that all domestic call detail records are “relevant” under Section 215 because “individuals associated… Continue Reading
Office of National Intelligence Releases New Documents on NSA Surveillance
EPIC: “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has just released new documents concerning the NSA’s surveillance programs. The documents, which include numerous filings with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, date back to 2006. The documents specifically relate to the governments collection of information under Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act. In a… Continue Reading
Yahoo’s first transparency report cites more than 12,000 US data requests
IDG News Service – “Yahoo received 12,444 requests from the U.S. government for user data in the first half of this year, resulting in 11,402 instances of data disclosure, it said Friday in its first transparency report. For nearly 7,000 of the U.S. requests between Jan. 1 and June 30, only non-content data was disclosed,… Continue Reading
WaPo – Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011
Ellen Nakashima: “The Obama administration secretly won permission from a surveillance court in 2011 to reverse restrictions on the National Security Agency’s use of intercepted phone calls and e-mails, permitting the agency to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases, according to interviews with government officials and recently declassified material. In addition, the court extended… Continue Reading
Guardian – NSA paid millions to cover Prism compliance costs for tech companies
Ewen MacAskill in New York, The Guardian, Thursday 22 August 2013: “The National Security Agency paid millions of dollars to cover the costs of major internet companies involved in the Prism surveillance program after a court ruled that some of the agency’s activities were unconstitutional, according to top-secret material passed to the Guardian. The technology companies, which the NSA says includes Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook, incurred… Continue Reading
DOJ/Obama Administration White Paper on Bulk Collection of Metadata Telephony
WSJ – Obama Proposes Surveillance-Policy Overhaul – President Plans Changes to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Transcript of President Obama’s press conference on surveillance, August 9, 2013 Background on the President’s Statement on Reforms to NSA Programs, August 9 2013 Huffington Post – Obama Proposes FISA Reforms Amid Growing Concerns Over NSA Surveillance DOJ/Obama Administration White Paper on… Continue Reading
Guardian – NSA loophole allows warrantless search for US citizens’ emails and phone calls
Spy agency has secret backdoor permission to search databases for individual Americans’ communications – “The National Security Agency has a secret backdoor into its vast databases under a legal authority enabling it to search for US citizens’email and phone calls without a warrant, according to a top-secret document passed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden. The previously… Continue Reading
EPIC – Government Releases Secret Court Order Authorizing NSA Telephone Surveillance
“The Director of National Intelligence has published the “Primary Order” from the FISA Court which describes the scope of the NSA’s data analysis activities for telephone call records. The order details the procedures the NSA is expected to follow when reviewing data, but is heavily redacted. The order does not include a legal analysis of… Continue Reading
