"Declassified" Court Ruling Shows Lack, Not Truimph, of NSA Oversight

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/09/18-0


A document purported by the government to be a "declassifed" opinion by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court (FISC) was released on Tuesday, but legal and civil rights experts say it should be seen for what it truly is: an attempt by the National Security Agency and the FISC to appear transparent and accountable that in actuality exposes how corrupt and negligible oversight on government surveillance programs has been.

In the FISC document released Tuesday—which was only authored on August 29, 2013, months after the NSA scandal broke following disclosures from whistleblower Edward Snowden—the ruling by court articulates why it believes the government's vast network of programs that collect consumers online and telephonic data are constitutional and do not violate the privacy rights of Americans.

As the Guardian reports, the ruling shows how the court is in "substantial agreement with the government's interpretation of its powers under the Patriot Act."

And Director of National Intelligence James Clapper welcomed the contents of the document, saying in a statement on Tuesday that it “affirms that the bulk telephony metadata collection is both lawful and constitutional.”

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. Approved by a rubbler-stamp court.