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Secrets Exposed: How the NSA Rubber-Stamps Warrentless Spying
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/14-4
Published on Sunday, July 14, 2013 by Common Dreams
Secrets Exposed: How the NSA Rubber-Stamps Warrentless Spying
by Christopher Brauchli
If we are to regard ourselves as a grown-up nation—and anything else will henceforth be mortally dangerous—then we must, as the Biblical phrase goes, put away childish things; and among these... the first to go, in my opinion, should be... the search for absolute security...
—George Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct, in Foreign Affairs (1947.)
Now we know what they so badly wanted to tell us but couldn’t and what a revelation it is. I refer to the exciting and long-awaited news reported in the Wall Street Journal as to what it was that Senators Mark Udall and Tom Wyden have been dying to tell the American public about the operations of the NSA but were unable to disclose because the information was of such a top-secret nature.
According to the WSJ, the secret information that the senators had that was so confidential they could only hint at it was an interpretation of one word in the Patriot Act by the FISA Court. The super super secret word was “relevant.” To the non-lawyer this may seem like a secret that was hardly worth keeping and, indeed, it may even seem so to the legal mind. To understand the true importance of this revelation, a bit of history is called for. The word “relevant” has become important because of two other words, “special needs.”
In legal parlance “special needs” has referred to two different things. In one context it refers to individuals who, because of abilities and related issues, are described as having “special needs.” In another context, and the one that concerns us today, it refers to situations that—because of their great importance—are used to justify the government obtaining court orders permitting it to conduct searches without first obtaining a warrant as would normally be required by the 4th amendment to the Constitution.
<snip>
According to a report in the Guardian, in 2012 the court received 1,856 requests for surveillance, which was a 5% increase over the number of requests received in 2011. Although there was a slight increase in the number of requests received, there was one number that neither increased nor decreased during those two years. The unchanged number was zero—the number of requests for surveillance that the FISA court, applying the rigorous scrutiny described by Judge Walton, turned down. Zero does not help us understand the meaning of “rigorous review.” The requests for surveillance that were approved, however, help us understand the meaning of “special needs” and “relevant.”
..more..
Published on Sunday, July 14, 2013 by Common Dreams
Secrets Exposed: How the NSA Rubber-Stamps Warrentless Spying
by Christopher Brauchli
If we are to regard ourselves as a grown-up nation—and anything else will henceforth be mortally dangerous—then we must, as the Biblical phrase goes, put away childish things; and among these... the first to go, in my opinion, should be... the search for absolute security...
—George Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct, in Foreign Affairs (1947.)
Now we know what they so badly wanted to tell us but couldn’t and what a revelation it is. I refer to the exciting and long-awaited news reported in the Wall Street Journal as to what it was that Senators Mark Udall and Tom Wyden have been dying to tell the American public about the operations of the NSA but were unable to disclose because the information was of such a top-secret nature.
According to the WSJ, the secret information that the senators had that was so confidential they could only hint at it was an interpretation of one word in the Patriot Act by the FISA Court. The super super secret word was “relevant.” To the non-lawyer this may seem like a secret that was hardly worth keeping and, indeed, it may even seem so to the legal mind. To understand the true importance of this revelation, a bit of history is called for. The word “relevant” has become important because of two other words, “special needs.”
In legal parlance “special needs” has referred to two different things. In one context it refers to individuals who, because of abilities and related issues, are described as having “special needs.” In another context, and the one that concerns us today, it refers to situations that—because of their great importance—are used to justify the government obtaining court orders permitting it to conduct searches without first obtaining a warrant as would normally be required by the 4th amendment to the Constitution.
<snip>
According to a report in the Guardian, in 2012 the court received 1,856 requests for surveillance, which was a 5% increase over the number of requests received in 2011. Although there was a slight increase in the number of requests received, there was one number that neither increased nor decreased during those two years. The unchanged number was zero—the number of requests for surveillance that the FISA court, applying the rigorous scrutiny described by Judge Walton, turned down. Zero does not help us understand the meaning of “rigorous review.” The requests for surveillance that were approved, however, help us understand the meaning of “special needs” and “relevant.”
..more..
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