Not only does this disclosure shed more light on how the NSA's formidable eavesdropping apparatus works domestically, it also suggests the Justice Department has secretly interpreted federal surveillance law to permit thousands of low-ranking analysts to eavesdrop on phone calls.
Because the same legal standards that apply to phone calls also apply to e-mail messages, text messages, and instant messages, being able to listen to phone calls would mean the NSA analysts could also access the contents of Internet communications without going before a court and seeking approval.
AT&T and other telecommunications companies that allow the NSA to tap into their fiber links receive absolute immunity from civil liability or criminal prosecution, thanks to a law that Congress enacted in 2008 and renewed in 2012. It's a series of amendments to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, also known as the FISA Amendments Act.
A requirement of the 2008 law is that the NSA "may not intentionally target any person known at the time of acquisition to be located in the United States." Clearly, the NSA's interpretation of that language is that the agency may vacuum up anything and everything it can domestically, on the on the theory that indiscriminate data acquisition was not intended to "target" a specific American citizen. Once they have it in the vacuum tube, they can do anything they want with it. And since they have everything int he vaccum tube, there ya go.
What do you think the new NSA facility in Utah is for, or the new one being built in Maryland?
Back in 2007 the then Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, stated during a House Intelligence hearing that the NSA's surveillance process involves "billions" of bulk communications being intercepted, analyzed, and incorporated into a database. The data can be accessed by an analyst who's part of the NSA's "workforce of thousands of people" who are "trained" annually in minimization procedures, he said. He assured the Committe in the public hearing that at no time does the NSA listen in on domestic phone calls, nor do they have the intention or the capability to do so, despite having the capability to listen in on the phone calls originating in or terminating from a foreign country, or even domestically if both parties are of foreign citizenry.
McConnell
said during a separate separate congressional appearance around the same time that he
believed the president had the constitutional authority, no matter what the law actually says, to order domestic spying without warrants.
Back in 2009 a New York Times
article revealed the NSA engaged in significant and systemic "overcollection" of Americans' domestic communications that alarmed intelligence officials. The Justice Department said in a statement at the time that it "took comprehensive steps to correct the situation and bring the program into compliance" with the law. We now know that to be a lie. Shocking, I know.
A week ago on June 12, the current NSA Director Keith Alexander said that his agency's analysts abide by the law:
"They do this lawfully. They take compliance oversight, protecting civil liberties and privacy and the security of this nation to their heart every day." We now that's a lie, too. And a big one.
Oh, yeah, back in 2007 when Michael McConnel was the liar-liar-pants-on-fire Director of National Intelligence, do you know what he does for a living now? He's the Vice Chariman of... wait for it.... ta-da!
Booz Allen Hamilton, Snowden's former employer.
Ya just can't make it up.
Like yoou said, Congress is fat and happy so they do whatever it takes to continue that gravy train, so they are indeed mute at this point, and not to be considered part of the process?
