Panel endorses some NSA Internet surveillance

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By KEN DILANIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan privacy board on Wednesday unanimously adopted its report that endorses some of the National Security Agency's Internet surveillance programs.

The programs provoked worldwide controversy when they were revealed last year by news organizations after leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, whose members were appointed by President Barack Obama, concluded in a lengthy report that the NSA's targeted collection of Internet data within the United States passes constitutional muster and employs "reasonable" safeguards designed to protect the rights of Americans.

David Medine, a former government privacy lawyer who chairs the board, said NSA's Internet surveillance was found to have been "valuable and effective for protecting the national security and producing foreign intelligence information."

FULL story at link.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140702/us-nsa-surveillance-privacy-report-114022771a.html

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FILE - This Thursday, June 6, 2013, file photo, shows a sign outside the National Security Administration (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. The latest study of the the bipartisan Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board takes the opposite view of a different set of National Security Agency surveillance programs revealed last year by former NSA systems administrator Edward Snowden. The board which was to vote on the report on Wednesday, July 2, 2014, found that the NSA's collection of Internet data within the United States passes constitutional muster and employs "reasonable" safeguards designed to protect the rights of Americans. Last January, the first time the board dissected an NSA surveillance program, it found fundamental flaws. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

[blkmusclmachine]

1. In Washington DC, "bi-partisan" ALWAYS means the little guy is getting f/cked under the disguise of

interparty comity.

[lsewpershad]

2. I assume

the chairman would be ok with his internet being monitored.

[Psephos]

3. Of course. Panelists know NSA has dirt on them.

This is a very old game.

[billhicks76]

6. Exactly

I can't believe how many myopic idiots that can't put NSA surveillance in that context where it's about gaining leverage and blackmailing all sorts of people from judges to politicians and journalists too.

[JDPriestly]

4. The spying creates more problems than it could possibly prevent.

It creates a precedent for spying on Americans based on their political views. That's is not the American way. The Fourth Amendment is very clear. I have no confidence whatsoever in a commission appointed by the executive branch and President Obama to check the actions and decisions of the NSA which is a part of the executive branch that appointed the commission. As far as I am concerned the opinion of this commission is not worth the paper it is written on.

[Maedhros]

5. Bipartisan: it has members of the RICH as well as the POWERFUL.

Just so nobody is left out.

[PSPS]

7. "appointed by President Barack Obama"

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, whose members were appointed by President Barack Obama, concluded in a lengthy report that the NSA's targeted collection of Internet data within the United States passes constitutional muster and employs "reasonable" safeguards designed to protect the rights of Americans.

No surprise here, since Obama appointed the members. Our "constitutional scholar" knows he can stop this with a stroke of his pen, but he refuses to because he likes it. Instead, he feigns impotence, insisting on unnecessary "congressional action" to stop his lawlessness. When nobody buys that nonsense, he tries this charade.

I would like to live long enough to see another president who doesn't turn out to be a crook.