FISA Court Says NSA Had History of Lying

[bigtree]

The Daily Beast ‏@thedailybeast 6m
FISA Court: NSA Had Pattern of Lies http://thebea.st/1dvBMUZ #cheatsheet (WaPo)

The National Security Agency had a history of misleading about their activities, a secret surveillance court said in an 85-page opinion from 2011 that was declassified Wednesday. The FISA court’s strongly-worded opinion also suggested that the agency may have broken the law in spying on Americans. “The government has now advised the court that the volume and nature of the information it has been collecting is fundamentally different from what the court had been led to believe,” judge John Bates wrote. The decision reveals that the NSA collected 56,000 “wholly domestic” communications each year, thus refusing to comply with laws that limit surveillance to foreign citizens.
____________________

For several years, the National Security Agency unlawfully gathered tens of thousands of e-mails and other electronic communications between Americans as part of a now-revised collection method, according to a 2011 secret court opinion.

The redacted 85-page opinion, which was declassified by U.S. intelligence officials on Wednesday, states that, based on NSA estimates, the spy agency may have been collecting as many as 56,000 “wholly domestic” communications each year.

In a strongly worded opinion, the chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court expressed consternation at what he saw as a pattern of misleading statements by the government and hinted that the NSA possibly violated a criminal law against spying on Americans.

“For the first time, the government has now advised the court that the volume and nature of the information it has been collecting is fundamentally different from what the court had been led to believe,” John D. Bates, then the surveillance court’s chief judge, wrote in his Oct. 3, 2011, opinion.


read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-gathered-thousands-of-americans-e-mails-before-court-struck-down-program/2013/08/21/146ba4b6-0a90-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html

[CincyDem]

1. Looks like a little "redistribution of blame" going on here

A couple weeks ago, all focus seemed to be on the court, its members, and its activities. Here we have "proof" that they really were doing their jobs upholding the law (as f'ed up as it is). The problem here wasn't in the Judiciary branch - it's clearly an Executive Branch out of control.

Uh huh. Let the finger pointing begin.

[bigtree]

2. ha! Good observation, CincyDem

'Let the finger pointing begin.'