Thirty Years Of NSA 'Oversight' And The Only Change Is Better Snooping Technology

[n2doc]

Thirty years down the road from a Senate select committee investigation into the NSA and what's changed for the intelligence agency? Based on this 1983 New York Times article (via Bruce Sterling), it appears the only difference is computing power and storage capacity. The NSA began as a virtually uncontrolled entity in 1952 and the next thirty years only saw it expand its grasp.

The power of the N.S.A., whose annual budget and staff are believed to exceed those of either the F.B.I. or the C.I.A., is enhanced by its unique legal status within the Federal Government. Unlike the Agriculture Department, the Postal Service or even the C.I.A., the N.S.A. has no specific Congressional law defining its responsibilities and obligations. Instead, the agency, based at Fort George Meade, about 20 miles northeast of Washington, has operated under a series of Presidential directives. Because of Congress's failure to draft a law for the agency, because of the tremendous secrecy surrounding the N.S.A.'s work and because of the highly technical and thus thwarting character of its equipment, the N.S.A. is free to define and pursue its own goals.

Is it any wonder the agency is prone to abuse? It may claim other entities have oversight, but at this point, it's had 60 years of setting its own agenda and tactics. Concerns that the NSA's power and reach could be misused were voiced by Frank Church (of the Church Committee), whose investigation resulted in the only "oversight" the agency has had to date -- the establishment of the FISA court in 1978.

During the course of the investigation, its chairman, Senator Frank Church, repeatedly emphasized his belief that the N.S.A.'s intelligence-gathering activities were essential to the nation's security. He also stressed that the equipment used to watch the Russians could just as easily ''monitor the private communications of Americans.'' If such forces were ever turned against the country's communications system, Senator Church said, ''no American would have any privacy left. ... There would be no place to hide.''

This was a concern in 1983, well before the internet served as the main communication route for millions of Americans and long before storage capacity was measured in zettabytes. And the NSA did turn it on American citizens. Repeatedly. The article states the NSA surveilled 75,000 Americans between 1952-1974. These files were shared with the CIA, another agency supposedly charged with targeting non-Americans only. Together, the CIA and NSA developed files on over 300,000 Americans during this time frame. This program, along with a telegram-reading program that ran from 1945-1975, was illegal. Both shut down in May of 1975, when the Senate committee expressed an interest in them.

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http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130826/09090624312/thirty-years-nsa-oversight-only-change-is-better-snooping-technology.shtml