Get FISA Right

Diagram by Marcy Wheeler, originally from “The CNET ‘Bombshell’ and the Four Surveillance Programs”

Several well-researched articles go into detail about the NSA’s phone and internet surveillance.   Marcy Wheeler’s diagram summarizes how the different programs fit together.  Bulk data collection from telcos captures metadata (the phone number or internet address being contacted, how long the call or email was, location, email subject header).  The content goes into different databases and has separate procedures to access it.   Julian Sanchez has a great analysis, starting with an exchange between from Rep. Jerry Nadler and FBI Director Robert Mueller, and relates to back to the FISA battle where we started:

What seems more likely is that Nadler is saying analysts sifting through metadata have the discretion to determine (on the basis of what they’re seeing in the metadata) that a particular phone number or e-mail account satisfies the conditions of one of the broad authorizations for electronic surveillance under §702 of the FISA Amendments Act. Those authorizations allow the targeting of whole groups or “categories of intelligence targets,” as the administration puts it. Once the FISA Court approves targeting procedures, they have no further role in deciding which specific accounts can be spied on. This is, as those of us who wrote about the FAA during its recent reauthorization observed, kind of a problem.

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Today, Get FISA Right joined a transpartisan coalition of 86 civil liberties organizations and Internet companies – including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Bill of Rights Defence Committee, reddit, Mozilla, FreedomWorks, and the American Civil Liberties Union – are demanding swift action from Congress in light of the recent revelations about unchecked domestic surveillance.

In an open letter to lawmakers sent today, the groups call for a congressional investigatory committee, similar to the Church Committee of the 1970s. The letter also demands

• reforming the controversial Section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act, the “business records” section which, through secret court orders, was misused to force Verizon to provide the NSA with detailed phone records of millions of customers.
• reforming the FISA Amendment Act, the unconstitutional law that allows, nearly without restriction, the government to conduct mass surveillance on American and international communications.
• amending the state secrets privilege, the legal tool that has expanded over the last 10 years to prevent the government from being held accountable for domestic surveillance.
• holding public officials responsible for this illegal surveillance accountable for their actions.

The letter denounces the NSA’s spying program as illegal, noting:

This type of blanket data collection by the government strikes at bedrock American values of freedom and privacy. This dragnet surveillance violates the First and Fourth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, which protect citizens’ right to speak and associate anonymously and guard against unreasonable searches and seizures that protect their right to privacy.

The full text of the letter is below.  Stay tuned for more!

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