Members of Congress denied access to basic information about NSA

[Luminous Animal]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/congress-nsa-denied-access

There is a lot of detail in this article and well worth reading the whole thing.

Documents provided by two House members demonstrate how they are blocked from exercising any oversight over domestic surveillance

Two House members, GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith of Virginia and Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida, have provided the Guardian with numerous letters and emails documenting their persistent, and unsuccessful, efforts to learn about NSA programs and relevant FISA court rulings.

"If I can't get basic information about these programs, then I'm not able to do my job", Rep. Griffith told me. A practicing lawyer before being elected to Congress, he said that his job includes "making decisions about whether these programs should be funded, but also an oath to safeguard the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, which includes the Fourth Amendment."

....

On June 19, Grayson wrote to the House Intelligence Committee requesting several documents relating to media accounts about the NSA. Included among them were FISA court opinions directing the collection of telephone records for Americans, as well as documents relating to the PRISM program.

But just over four weeks later, the Chairman of the Committee, GOP Rep. Mike Rogers, wrote to Grayson informing him that his requests had been denied by a Committee "voice vote".

[MotherPetrie]

1. K&R

[think]

2. All these critters refusing to release this information

need to have their asses handed to them in the midterm.

[marions ghost]

3. THIS is where the problem is...

(from the Guardian article--OP link):

In a follow-up email exchange, a staff member for Grayson wrote to the Chairman, advising him that Congressman Grayson had "discussed the committee's decision with Ranking Member [Dutch] Ruppersberger on the floor last night, and he told the Congressman that he was unaware of any committee action on this matter." Grayson wanted to know how a voice vote denying him access to these documents could have taken place without the knowledge of the ranking member on the Committee, and asked: "can you please share with us the recorded vote, Member-by-Member?" The reply from this Committee was as follows:

"Thanks for your inquiry. The full Committee attends Business Meetings. At our July 18, 2013 Business Meeting, there were seven Democrat Members and nine Republican Members in attendance. The transcript is classified."

Denial of access for members of Congress to basic information about the NSA and the FISC appears to be common. Justin Amash, the GOP representative who, along with Democratic Rep. John Conyers, co-sponsored the amendment to ban the NSA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records, told CNN on July 31: "I, as a member of Congress, can't get access to the court opinions. I have to beg for access, and I'm denied it if I - if I make that request."

It is the Intelligence Committees of both the House and Senate that exercise primary oversight over the NSA. But as I noted last week, both Committees are, with the exception of a handful of members, notoriously beholden to the NSA and the intelligence community generally.

Its members typically receive much larger contributions from the defense and surveillance industries than non-Committee members. And the two Committee Chairs - Democrat Dianne Feinstein in the Senate and Republican Mike Rogers in the House - are two of the most steadfast NSA loyalists in Congress. The senior Democrat on the House Committee is ardent NSA defender Dutch Ruppersberger, whose district not only includes NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, but who is also himself the second-largest recipient of defense/intelligence industry cash.

(more at link)
-------

--Thank you Grayson and Griffith

[Catherina]

4. The old "Kiss my ass" routine

Documents provided by two House members demonstrate how they are blocked from exercising any oversight over domestic surveillance

• Morgan Griffith's requests for NSA information
• Alan Grayson's requests for NSA information

...

From the beginning of the NSA controversy, the agency's defenders have insisted that Congress is aware of the disclosed programs and exercises robust supervision over them. "These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate," President Obama said the day after the first story on NSA bulk collection of phone records was published in this space. "And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up."

But members of Congress, including those in Obama's party, have flatly denied knowing about them. On MSNBC on Wednesday night, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Ct) was asked by host Chris Hayes: "How much are you learning about what the government that you are charged with overseeing and holding accountable is doing from the newspaper and how much of this do you know?" The Senator's reply:

The revelations about the magnitude, the scope and scale of these surveillances, the metadata and the invasive actions surveillance of social media Web sites were indeed revelations to me."

...

Congressman Grayson has had very similar experiences, except that he sometimes did receive responses to his requests: negative ones.

...

"Thanks for your inquiry. The full Committee attends Business Meetings. At our July 18, 2013 Business Meeting, there were seven Democrat Members and nine Republican Members in attendance. The transcript is classified."

To date, neither Griffith nor Grayson has received any of the documents they requested. Correspondence between Grayson and the Committee - with names of staff members and email addresses redacted - can be read here.

...

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/04/congress-nsa-denied-access

[rhett o rick]

5. This post is not intended to reflect badly on Pres Obama, but even the

craziest of the INOF (It's Not Obama's Fault) Group should agree that we need better oversight of the NSA. And it has nothing to do with Snowden.

[WillyT]

6. K & R !!!

[darkangel218]

7. lol!

So not even the congress men and women know what the hell is going on

[Zorra]

8. That's because the NSA is a primarily a private agency used by corporations to harvest all our

information for marketing, protecting their interests, and control purposes.

They are above the law and government oversight because wealthy private interests have co-opted the NSA for their own purposes, and since they control the government, no one can prevent them from doing so. They own Roberts and all the judges on the FISA court as well, and it is an exclusive private club located in an impenetrable gated and guarded community.

Reps. Grayson and Griffith need to be careful not to get access to the information they have been seeking, or they might end up as exiles living in Russia.

[Luminous Animal]

9. The second to last paragraph is almost too bizarre to be believed...

In early July, Grayson had staffers distribute to House members several slides published by the Guardian about NSA programs as part of Grayson's efforts to trigger debate in Congress. But, according to one staff member, Grayson's office was quickly told by the House Intelligence Committee that those slides were still classified, despite having been published and discussed in the media, and directed Grayson to cease distribution or discussion of those materials in the House, warning that he could face sanctions if he continued.

[DirkGently]

10. This "oversight" is not like our Earth oversight. n/t