Officials Promise Surveillance Privacy Safeguards Unchanged = McConnell and Wainstein

[L. Coyote]

Officials Promise Surveillance Privacy Safeguards Unchanged
By Spencer Ackerman - September 18, 2007
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004224.php

In response to questions from lawmakers about possible surveillance of Americans, McConnell and Wainstein both stated flatly that the Protect America Act doesn't remove robust "minimization" procedures for handling information collected on U.S. persons in the course of a foreign intelligence information. For instance, names of U.S. persons -- citizens and non-citizens -- collected in the course of a foreign-foreign warrantless surveillance investigation have to be blacked out and removed from reports based on that collected intelligence.

Under questioning from Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), however, Wainstein conceded that there are certain situations under which intelligence analysts might disseminate information on U.S. individuals throughout the government -- if it's necessary for the official reviewing the information "to understand the foreign intelligence value" of the intercept, for instance.

Wainstein suggested that's something of a trivial and minor circumstance, but who knows? Cohen referenced a 2006 Newsweek story that said the NSA has improperly turned over 10,000 names of U.S. persons acquired through surveillance to other agencies. .......

VIDEO

[L. Coyote]

1. There are exceptions, meaning they break the kaw?

My informant on illegal surveillance said the route all the US communications overseas where US law does not apply. I'm sure they did not even address that issue, and the question should be reframed in that context.