{"id":18580,"date":"2017-10-18T16:52:24","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T20:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=18580"},"modified":"2018-11-06T10:26:08","modified_gmt":"2018-11-06T15:26:08","slug":"national-security-agencies-are-evading-congressional-oversight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2017\/10\/18\/national-security-agencies-are-evading-congressional-oversight\/","title":{"rendered":"National Security Agencies Are Evading Congressional Oversight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week, federal officials from several spy agencies engaged in a\u00a0full court press<\/a>\u00a0in Washington,\u00a0spinning facts<\/a>\u00a0before media outlets, flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists, and bringing lawmakers to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Ft. Meade headquarters to feed them selective information about their\u00a0unconstitutional<\/a>\u00a0mass surveillance activities. Predictably omitted from these conversations are the many Americans from across the political spectrum who have raised concerns, ranging from constitutional and\u00a0commercial<\/a>\u00a0to security-related, that have rightfully dogged federal mass surveillance efforts since their\u00a0revelations<\/a>\u2014not in official proceedings, but rather by whistleblowers\u2014in\u00a02005<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a02013<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rather than embrace bipartisan calls for long overdue and constitutionally necessary limits, executive officials have instead chosen to shoot the proverbial messengers,\u00a0vilifying<\/a>whistleblowers<\/a>\u00a0and building\u00a0new programs<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0prevent<\/a>\u00a0others from ever coming forward. Last week\u2019s meetings included claims that particular\u00a0examples<\/a>\u00a0of mass surveillance proved useful, ignoring its repeated failures. While the appearance of security may be comforting to some, NSA veterans have identified\u00a0discarded programs<\/a>\u00a0that, relative to their replacements, reportedly did a better job of protecting national security while also protecting the privacy of Americans by encrypting data collected within the U.S. and requiring a warrant for investigators to access it.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, too many members of Congress from each of the major parties remain excessively\u00a0deferential<\/a>\u00a0to the intelligence community, despite Congress mustering a bipartisan majority to enact\u00a0preliminary reforms<\/a>\u00a0in 2013 and the House approving\u00a0even more sweeping changes<\/a>\u00a0in their wake. Even though the\u00a0scheduled expiration<\/a>\u00a0of a key statute\u2014Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)\u2014looms mere months away, congressional committees have yet to hold hearings to get beyond executive talking points and\u00a0begin<\/a>\u00a0actively\u00a0investigating<\/a>\u00a0the underlying facts.<\/p>\n

Originally enacted in the 1970s to restrain domestic surveillance, the\u00a0history<\/a>\u00a0of the FISA statute is revealing in itself. Its genesis was a wide-ranging\u00a0congressional<\/a>\u00a0investigation<\/a>\u00a0that dramatically\u00a0uncovered<\/a>\u00a0a series of previously secret programs that, instead of promoting security, were carefully tailored to undermine constitutionally protected dissent. Alarmed at wide-ranging executive\u00a0abuses<\/a>\u00a0behind a wall of secrecy, Congress enacted reforms that included the creation of a\u00a0secret court<\/a>, and insisted on\u00a0regulations<\/a>\u00a0by the Department of Justice to further curtail the FBI’s 40-year assault on democracy in the form of\u00a0COINTELPRO<\/a>: its infamous Counterintelligence Programs.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Justice Department regulations have been\u00a0watered down<\/a>\u00a0periodically, while FISA was ultimately flipped on its head. Most recently, FISA was amended in 2009 to legalize a series of mass surveillance programs\u00a0begun<\/a>\u00a0under the Bush administration in direct violation of the governing statue at the time, as well as constitutional limits. The\u00a0continuation<\/a>\u00a0of these programs under the Obama administration granted them the appearance of\u00a0bipartisan<\/a>\u00a0legitimacy despite their clear and continuing\u00a0unconstitutionality<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the past, concerns about mass surveillance have extended\u00a0across<\/a>\u00a0the<\/a>\u00a0political<\/a>\u00a0spectrum<\/a>and\u00a0around<\/a>\u00a0the\u00a0world<\/a>. Under the Trump administration, those concerns have grown increasingly pressing, given the president’s seeming\u00a0disregard<\/a>\u00a0for constitutional limits on executive power, and potential willingness to\u00a0politicize<\/a>\u00a0surveillance to serve his own political ends.<\/p>\n

Given those concerns, and the\u00a0crucial<\/a>\u00a0congressional role of checking and balancing the federal executive branch, Congress should aggressively exercise its oversight responsibilities. But there are\u00a0structural<\/a>\u00a0barriers to doing so. Many members of Congress on key congressional committees, for instance, lack qualified staff wielding adequate security clearance to rebut talking points peddled by self-serving executive officials.<\/p>\n

Beyond structural impediments, many members of Congress have been willing to settle for mere assurances from executive officials, rather than insist upon reviewing evidence proving that mass surveillance effectively protects security, and that the government\u2019s systems adequately protect the rights of innocent Americans. Representatives poised to do more include Democrats and Republicans whose constituents may enjoy\u00a0opportunities<\/a>\u00a0to politically force their hands.<\/p>\n

Only by investigating mass surveillance operations can Congress uncover the underlying facts. Such an investigation would be crucial in helping establish the need for long overdue constitutional limits.<\/p>\n

In particular, because agencies including the NSA and FBI have relied on\u00a0legal loophole<\/a>s and\u00a0secret interpretations<\/a>\u00a0for which they have grown\u00a0notorious<\/a>, one crucial requirement is for backdoor searches of Americans to be first justified by a judicial warrant. While that process does not impose a significant operational burden on agencies, it does prevent the kinds of documented abuses that agency employees and contractors have already committed, which include\u00a0stalking<\/a>\u00a0former lovers using the government’s powerful spying tools.<\/p>\n

Congress should also ensure that intelligence information is used exclusively to protect national security, instead of\u00a0polluting<\/a>\u00a0the criminal legal system with raw intelligence that inherently fails to meet the standards required for evidence to be admitted in court. Congress should not allow powerful military-grade surveillance programs to be used for purposes like\u00a0routine<\/a>\u00a0criminal law enforcement or\u00a0tracking down<\/a>\u00a0undocumented immigrants.<\/p>\n

Congressional oversight of the intelligence agencies should also address issues beyond data collection. In the past, intelligence agencies have undermined attempts by Americans to ensure their own privacy, including by\u00a0intercepting<\/a>\u00a0router shipments and planting covert firmware. Accordingly, Congress must adopt measures to protect\u00a0encryption<\/a>\u00a0and encryption\u00a0standards<\/a>\u00a0from erosion by national security agencies. A restriction along these lines would also serve business interests, which have vocally decried losses amounting to billions of dollars driven by clients making the\u00a0rational decision<\/a>\u00a0to buy encryption devices from other sources.<\/p>\n

Finally, Congress must restore the opportunity for a robust public debate about these issues. That requires reforming the\u00a0state secrets privilege<\/a>\u00a0and fixing the\u00a0broken classification<\/a>system described as \u201cdysfunctional\u201d by the former official who administered it. All too often, overclassification keeps policymakers and the public in the dark, and enables a bipartisan war on whistleblowers from whom congressional committees have learned the truth.<\/p>\n

Regardless of what Congress does this fall, advocates will\u00a0continue<\/a>\u00a0to\u00a0challenge<\/a>\u00a0the constitutionality of mass surveillance in the courts, where we have sought for over a decade to invoke the rule of law to restore limits on executive authority. Congress is currently considering surveillance policy, and we urge Congress to legislate limits to safeguard constitutional rights. If enough policymakers are pressed by informed and alarmed constituents, Congress will hopefully finish the job it\u00a0already started<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Source: National Security Agencies Are Evading Congressional Oversight<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week, federal officials from several spy agencies engaged in a\u00a0full court press\u00a0in Washington,\u00a0spinning facts\u00a0before media outlets, flooding Capitol Hill with lobbyists, and bringing lawmakers to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Ft. Meade headquarters to feed them selective information about their\u00a0unconstitutional\u00a0mass surveillance activities. Predictably omitted from these conversations are the many Americans from across the political spectrum who have raised concerns, ranging from constitutional and\u00a0commercial\u00a0to security-related, that have rightfully dogged federal mass surveillance efforts since their\u00a0revelations\u2014not in official proceedings, but rather by whistleblowers\u2014in\u00a02005\u00a0and\u00a02013. Rather than embrace bipartisan calls for long overdue and constitutionally necessary limits, executive officials have instead chosen to shoot the proverbial messengers,\u00a0vilifyingwhistleblowers\u00a0and building\u00a0new programs\u00a0to\u00a0prevent\u00a0others from ever coming forward. Last week\u2019s meetings included claims that particular\u00a0examples\u00a0of mass surveillance proved useful, ignoring its repeated failures. While the appearance of security may be comforting to some, NSA veterans have identified\u00a0discarded programs\u00a0that, relative to their replacements, reportedly did a better job of protecting national security while also protecting the privacy of Americans by encrypting data collected within the U.S. and requiring a warrant for investigators to access it. Meanwhile, too many members of Congress from each of the major parties remain excessively\u00a0deferential\u00a0to the intelligence community, despite Congress mustering a bipartisan majority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[1245],"class_list":["post-18580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-and-politics","tag-nsa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}