Tyranny of the Judiciary: In Secret, Court Vastly Broadens Powers of NSA
By Eric Lichtblau. In more than a dozen classified rulings, the nation’s surveillance court has created a secret body of law giving the National Security Agency [NSA] the power to amass vast collections of data on Americans while pursuing not only terrorism suspects, but also people possibly involved in nuclear proliferation, espionage and cyberattacks, officials say.
The rulings, some nearly 100 pages long, reveal that the court has taken on a much more expansive role by regularly assessing broad constitutional questions and establishing important judicial precedents, with almost no public scrutiny, according to current and former officials familiar with the court’s classified decisions.
The 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, known as the FISA court, was once mostly focused on approving case-by-case wiretapping orders. But since major changes in legislation and greater judicial oversight of intelligence operations were instituted six years ago, it has quietly become almost a parallel Supreme Court, serving as the ultimate arbiter on surveillance issues and delivering opinions that will most likely shape intelligence practices for years to come, the officials said.
Last month, a former National Security Agency contractor, Edward J. Snowden, leaked a classified order from the FISA court, which authorized the collection of all phone-tracing data from Verizon business customers. But the court’s still-secret decisions go far beyond any single surveillance order, the officials said. Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: ZEIT ONLINEAstonishing Graphic Shows What You Can Learn From 6 Months Of Someone’s Phone Metadata
By Michael Kelley. A German politician named Malte Spitz filed a suit against T-Mobile for the release of all the metadata from his phone that had been gathered and stored.
He received 35,830 records — six months worth — and then gave it to ZEIT Online.
From ZEIT (emphasis ours):
“We combined this geolocation data with information relating to his life as a politician, such as Twitter feeds, blog entries and websites, all of which is all freely available on the internet.
By pushing the play button, you will set off on a trip through Malte Spitz’s life.”
The result is astonishing to watch — a politician’s daily movements, phone calls, text messages, and mobile Internet usage over months. Read more from this story HERE.
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Europe Threatens to Suspend Data-Sharing in NSA Spying Flap
By Thomson/Reuters. The European Union is threatening to suspend two agreements granting the United States access to European financial and travel data unless Washington shows it is respecting EU rules on data privacy, EU officials said on Friday.
The threat reflects European disquiet about allegations that the United States has engaged in widespread eavesdropping on European Internet users as well as spying on the EU.
Cecilia Malmstrom, the EU’s home affairs commissioner, wrote to two senior U.S. officials on Thursday to voice European concerns over implementation of the two agreements, both struck in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and regarded by Washington as important tools in the fight against terrorism.
“Should we fail to demonstrate the benefits of (the agreements) for our citizens and the fact that they have been implemented in full compliance with the law, their credibility will be seriously affected and in such a case I will be obliged to reconsider (whether) the conditions for their implementation are still met,” Malmstrom said.
EU-U.S. relations are going through a “delicate moment,” she wrote in the letter to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and David Cohen, Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Read more from this story HERE.
