The New American
Tuesday, 10 September 2013 10:34
Obama Administration Removes Ban on Warrantless Surveillance of Americans
Written by Joe Wolverton, II, J.D.
President Obama sought and obtained permission from a secret
surveillance court to disregard previously enacted restrictions on the
domestic, warrantless spying programs of the National Security Agency
(NSA), the Washington Post reports.
According to sources cited in the story, in 2011, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, former chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, issued an order “permitting the agency [NSA] to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases.”
Also included in the order was an extension of the amount of time the NSA can store the electronic communication data it collects in the United States. Prior to the judge’s decision, such files could be retained for only five years; the limit was pushed back to six years by the terms of the ruling.
The order, the story claims, reversed an “explicit ban” on such unconstitutional searches imposed by the same court in 2008. These restrictions reportedly were “not previously acknowledged.”
A decision of this type would cause immediate and irreparable harm to the Constitution and the right of Americans — and all free people — to be free from unwarranted surveillance by agents of their own government.
What’s more troubling and tyrannical is the fact that none of these changes to exceptions to the Fourth Amendment was ever debated or passed by the people’s elected representatives in Congress. Rather, this fundamental civil liberty was repealed by a judicial appointee at the behest of the very department who sought the expanded authority.
When it comes to circumventing the Constitution in the name of “homeland security,” the Obama administration seems to follow the popular philosophy that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Unfortunately, the Constitution doesn’t permit such departures from the road of republicanism.
In the spirit of “it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is,” President Obama and his Stasi-like surveillance apparatus play fast and loose with the definition of “target.”
Read More Here
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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 the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
What had not been previously acknowledged is that the court in
2008 imposed an explicit ban — at the government’s request — on those
kinds of searches, that officials in 2011 got the court to lift the bar
and that the search authority has been used.
Together the permission to search and to keep data longer expanded the NSA’s authority in significant ways without public debate or any specific authority from Congress. The administration’s assurances rely on legalistic definitions of the term “target” that can be at odds with ordinary English usage. The enlarged authority is part of a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to surveillance: collecting first, and protecting Americans’ privacy later.
“The government says, ‘We’re not targeting U.S. persons,’ ” said Gregory T. Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “But then they never say, ‘We turn around and deliberately search for Americans’ records in what we took from the wire.’ That, to me, is not so different from targeting Americans at the outset.”
Read More Here
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The communications were between people with no links to terror suspects.
The US government faces mounting criticism over its surveillance operations after the leaks of US whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
The court, whose rulings are normally kept secret, said the NSA may have violated US law for collecting as many as 56,000 emails on an annual basis between 2008 and 2011.
But intelligence officials speaking to reporters anonymously say the scooping of emails was unintentional, blaming it on a technological problem.
Read More Here
*********************************************************
According to sources cited in the story, in 2011, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, former chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, issued an order “permitting the agency [NSA] to search deliberately for Americans’ communications in its massive databases.”
Also included in the order was an extension of the amount of time the NSA can store the electronic communication data it collects in the United States. Prior to the judge’s decision, such files could be retained for only five years; the limit was pushed back to six years by the terms of the ruling.
The order, the story claims, reversed an “explicit ban” on such unconstitutional searches imposed by the same court in 2008. These restrictions reportedly were “not previously acknowledged.”
A decision of this type would cause immediate and irreparable harm to the Constitution and the right of Americans — and all free people — to be free from unwarranted surveillance by agents of their own government.
What’s more troubling and tyrannical is the fact that none of these changes to exceptions to the Fourth Amendment was ever debated or passed by the people’s elected representatives in Congress. Rather, this fundamental civil liberty was repealed by a judicial appointee at the behest of the very department who sought the expanded authority.
When it comes to circumventing the Constitution in the name of “homeland security,” the Obama administration seems to follow the popular philosophy that it is easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Unfortunately, the Constitution doesn’t permit such departures from the road of republicanism.
In the spirit of “it depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is,” President Obama and his Stasi-like surveillance apparatus play fast and loose with the definition of “target.”
Read More Here
*********************************************************
The Washington Post
Obama administration had restrictions on NSA reversed in 2011
In addition, the court extended the length of time that the NSA is allowed to retain intercepted U.S. communications from five years to six years — and more under special circumstances, according to the documents, which include a recently released 2011 opinion by U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, then chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Read the document
Declassified 2011 FISA court ruling
Opinion struck down an NSA program that unlawfully gathered thousands of electronic communications between Americans.
The agency searched a massive database of phone call records in violation of privacy rules.
Together the permission to search and to keep data longer expanded the NSA’s authority in significant ways without public debate or any specific authority from Congress. The administration’s assurances rely on legalistic definitions of the term “target” that can be at odds with ordinary English usage. The enlarged authority is part of a fundamental shift in the government’s approach to surveillance: collecting first, and protecting Americans’ privacy later.
“The government says, ‘We’re not targeting U.S. persons,’ ” said Gregory T. Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. “But then they never say, ‘We turn around and deliberately search for Americans’ records in what we took from the wire.’ That, to me, is not so different from targeting Americans at the outset.”
Read More Here
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BBC
NSA illegally collected thousands of emails, US admits
The NSA's activities have sparked protests after leaks by Edward Snowden
Officials revealed that a judge in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ruled the programme illegal in 2011.The communications were between people with no links to terror suspects.
The US government faces mounting criticism over its surveillance operations after the leaks of US whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
The court, whose rulings are normally kept secret, said the NSA may have violated US law for collecting as many as 56,000 emails on an annual basis between 2008 and 2011.
But intelligence officials speaking to reporters anonymously say the scooping of emails was unintentional, blaming it on a technological problem.
Read More Here
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