FISA Court Will Release More Opinions Because of Snowden 179
cold fjord sends this news from the Washington Post:
"Call it the Edward Snowden effect: Citing the former NSA contractor, a federal judge has ordered the government to declassify more reports from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. In an opinion from the FISC itself, Judge F. Dennis Saylor on Friday told the White House to declassify all the legal opinions relating to Section 215 of the Patriot Act written after May 2011 that aren't already the subject of FOIA litigation. The court ruled (PDF) that the White House must identify the opinions in question by Oct. 4. 'The unauthorized disclosure of in June 2013 of a Section 215 order, and government statements in response to that disclosure, have engendered considerable public interest and debate about Section 215,' wrote Saylor. 'Publication of FISC opinions relating to this opinion would contribute to an informed debate.' The ruling comes in response to a petition by the American Civil Liberties Union seeking greater government transparency. But because the ACLU already has a similar FOIA case pending in another court, Saylor wrote that the new FISC order can only cover documents that don't relate to that case."
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said that Snowden's information leaks started conversations that should have happened a long time ago. Also, the privacy reform panel created by President Obama met for the first time earlier this week. It did not discuss the NSA's surveillance activities. [Two attendees of the Monday meeting said the discussion was dominated by the interests of major technology firms, and the session did not address making any substantive changes to the controversial mass collection of Americans' phone data and foreigners' internet communications, which can include conversations with Americans."
Open source security is a failure (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm shocked, shocked! (Score:5, Interesting)
Two attendees of the Monday meeting said the discussion was dominated by the interests of major technology firms
Fancy that.
Re:Dear Edward, (Score:2, Interesting)
And Dear Mr. Clapper,
Compartmentalization is good for security, but if things are so compartmentalized that nobody in your organization knows whether it's committing crimes or not, you need to re-read your history. It's not a defense to say you only put people onto transportation, unaware of the destination. It's not a defense to say you only drove a trains, unaware of its destination. It's not a defense to say you only processed prisoners, unaware of their source. Sorry for the Godwin, it's the only precedent I know of, because the NKVD/KGB did a better job of keeping their ecrets, although the Katyn massacre comes to mind.
My point is that it's not a defense to only realize now that this was a conversation that has to happen. It happened. On your watch. Your organization used to be the whitest of white hats. Blindingly white that we couldn't see what it was doing, so we pretty much had to trust that you were having this sort of conversation all along. Up until a point, based on material as recently as 25-30 years ago, it looked like you probably were. Somewhere along the line, you stopped having that conversation. Somewhere along the line, you turned into domestic law enforcement. Somewhere along the line, you failed to uphold the ideals we still thought you had. You need to find the root cause of that failure, and you need to root it out, before the types of people that make the atrocities associated with police states are permanently entrenched within your bureaucracy. It may already be too late. Good luck, sir.
Yours, Another AC, who is also grateful for Mr. Snowden's service.
Re:Obama needs to pardon Snowden (Score:5, Interesting)
You may lump as all together as Nazis; but we fight Nazis here, in Germany. We have them, but we do something against them. We could do more, but many citizens -- and that's the majority of people -- work hard to make these tendencies a non-issue for federal politics.
Whereas, you -- well, you have a government that doesn't bring an action against its officials who lied before congress, doesn't bring an action against its sworn officers who have knowingly decided to breach the law. Instead, it prosecutes the people who defend your constitution. You allowed the government to comandeer private resources, an action that is constitutionally only allowed in war time. And worse -- you don't care about it. Your press calls to suppress freedom of press and there's no outcry about it.
You voted them in, Bush and Obama, and you knew what you were doing.
You, the U.S.A., returns to behaviour of the 50s -- concentration camps like the Japanese citizens, or like Guantanamo, witch hunts like McCarthy, power without checks-and-balances. You think J. Edgar Hoover was bad, and it got over when he died? Well, Keith Alexander is worse. He should be the American darkest nightdream -- but he isn't. He is beyond the law now and can do like he wish, he is the living proove that you are neither willing to care for your republic nor for your democracy. And you will not get rid of his heritage, because he's much more intelligent than Hoover ever was.
There was a time when the U.S.A. was revered for their spirit, for their strive for justice and freedom. Well, these days are long over. People like Keith Alexander and others destroyed this spirit, and you -- the people of the U.S.A. -- didn't fight it.
Shame on you.