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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFisa judge: Snowden's NSA disclosures triggered important spying debate
The court that oversees US surveillance has ordered the government to review for declassification a set of secret rulings about the National Security Agency's bulk trawls of Americans' phone records, acknowledging that disclosures by the whistleblower Edward Snowden had triggered an important public debate.
The Fisa court ordered the Justice Department to identify the court's own rulings after May 2011 that concern a section of the Patriot Act used by the NSA to justify its mass database of American phone data. The ruling was a significant step towards their publication.
I concur.
cloudbase
(5,486 posts)gulliver
(13,142 posts)BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)gulliver
(13,142 posts)No offense, but the Guardian is worthless. It's whole business is now gambled on Snowden/Greenwald. Nothing they say on the matter can be given any weight because of this conflict of interest.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)It's just funny how you think.
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)The Guardian has (for a long time, iirc) been in financial dire straits, so that makes your statement 'their business is gambled on it" not that far-fetched.
But even if that would slant their opinion pieces etc, do you actually think they pulled the FISA judge statements from thin air?
I see Salon also carries it, but let me check for other links.
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)"We are pleased that the surveillance court has recognized the importance of transparency to the ongoing public debate about the NSA's spying," said Alex Abdo, staff attorney with the ACLU National Security Project. "For too long, the NSA's sweeping surveillance of Americans has been shrouded in unjustified secrecy. Today's ruling is an overdue rebuke of that practice. Secret law has no place in our democracy."
ACLU
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)so slow...
DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)NealK
(1,791 posts)MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)"Right Jamie? Right Lloyd?"
Note to the severely parody-impaired: the above is parody, not an actual quote. Take a deep breath.
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)If this was the best the intelligence community could put on the table when it faced the risk of judicial sanction, we can assume that all the hand-waving without hard, observable, testable facts is magician's patter, aimed to protect the fruits of a decade's worth of bureaucratic expansionism. Claims that secrecy prevents the priesthood from presenting such testable proof appeal to a doctrine of occult infallibility that we cannot afford to accept."
Also from the Guardian, "Time to tame the NSA behemoth".
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Hutzpa
(11,461 posts)that's for sure, no matter who gets elected as president they're still calling the shot, how unfortunate to
have created a monster that has gone out of control.
At this point one will have to ask if the Director of NSA is in control of this monster?
joeybee12
(56,177 posts)forestpath
(3,102 posts)Octafish
(55,745 posts)Friendliest Fascism on The Planet
BelgianMadCow
(5,379 posts)Glas to see you post to the thread, gives me the chance to ask you: how, the eff, do you keep all your news & facts organized?
Your posts are an inspiration, and I consider them among DUs best.
fascisthunter
(29,381 posts)in which fascism was being tauted as a viable option for the US by a Keynsian opponent. I can't remember names but I was fucking blown away by the outright audacity to even admit such a sentiment. It was about ten years or so ago... and now here we are.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)KoKo
(84,711 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,112 posts)It's so ludicrous to believe that any nation governed by the rule of law can classify, making secret the Constitutionality of its' own reasoning.
How can any citizen then prove harm and hold said government accountable to the rule of law?
That speaks volumes as to their lack of faith in their own policies, the people and the Constitution itself.
The ACLU is seeking more: namely, Fisa court "opinions evaluating the meaning, scope and constitutionality of section 215 of the Patriot Act."
Thanks for the thread, BelgianMadCow.
backscatter712
(26,355 posts)And he drinks red wine with chicken!
NealK
(1,791 posts)In fact he dated a box and had strippers drinking wine in his garage.
Katashi_itto
(10,175 posts)The Wine was dating the strippers and he was on top of the garage.