FISA "cannot check the veracity" that "unintentional" NSA mistakes were unintentional

The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government’s vast spying programs said that its ability to do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

The chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court said the court lacks the tools to independently verify how often the government’s surveillance breaks the court’s rules that aim to protect Americans’ privacy. Without taking drastic steps, it also cannot check the veracity of the government’s assertions that the violations its staff members report are unintentional mistakes.

Congressman Justin Amash mocks President Obama

As President Obama prepared to issue a statement of the situation in Egypt, Justin Amash tweeted: ""He'll pick Mubarak to "establish" "independent" review panel.""

https://twitter.com/repjustinamash/status/368003747722452993

While you were distracted by TMZ-like Snowden-related gossip...

...the following scholars said the NSA's bulk metadata program is illegal:

William C. Banks
Board of Advisors Distinguished Professor
Syracuse University College of Law
Director, Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism

Fred H. Cate (Counsel of Record)
Distinguished Professor and C. Ben Dutton
Professor of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law
Director, Center for Applied Cybersecurity
Research

Danielle Citron
Lois K. Macht Research Professor of Law
University of Maryland
Francis King Carey School of Law

David P. Fidler
James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law
Indiana University Maurer School of Law

Susan Freiwald
Professor of Law
University of San Francisco School of Law

Lawrence M. Friedman
Professor of Law
New England Law—Boston

Michael Froomkin, Laurie Silvers &
Mitchell Rubenstein
Distinguished Professor of Law
University of Miami School of Law

Ken Gormley
Dean and Professor of Law
Duquesne University School of Law

Deirdre Mulligan
Assistant Professor
University of California Berkeley
School of Information

Paul Ohm
Associate Professor of Law
University of Colorado Law School

Joel R. Reidenberg
Stanley D. and Nikki Waxberg Chair and
Professor of Law
Founding Academic Director, Center on Law
and Information Policy
Fordham University School of Law

Ira S. Rubinstein
Senior Fellow and Adjunct Professor
New York University School of Law

Peter Swire
C. William O’Neill Professor in Law and
Judicial Administration
Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

Jennifer M. Urban
Assistant Clinical Professor of Law
University of California, Berkeley
School of Law
Director, Samuelson Law, Technology & Public
Policy Clinic

Summary of their argument:

"On April 25, 2013, the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court (“FISC”), issued an order under 50
U.S.C. § 1861 compelling Verizon Business Network
Services, Inc. (“Verizon”) to produce to the National
Security Agency (“NSA”) on a daily basis an electronic
copy of “all call detail records or ‘telephony metadata’
created by Verizon for communications (i) between the
United States and abroad; or (ii) wholly within the
United States, including local telephone calls. . .” In re
Application of the FBI for an Order Requiring the
Production of Tangible Things from Verizon Bus.
Network Serv., Inc. on Behalf of MCI Commc’n Serv.,
Inc. D/B/A Verizon Bus. Serv., Dkt. No. BR 13-80
(RV) at 1-2 (FISA Ct. Apr. 25, 2013) (“Verizon Order”).

The order violates the language and logic of 50
U.S.C. § 1861 by permitting the federal government to
engage in the unlawful wholesale collection of
personal information about “U.S. persons” (i.e., U.S.
citizens and permanent legal residents). The
government’s defense of the Verizon Order reflects a
significant rewriting of the law and permits the illegal
construction of a comprehensive database of data
about U.S. persons’ communications. The Verizon
Order thus warrants the extraordinary remedy of
mandamus because it clearly violates the law and
presents an extraordinary risk to personal privacy.

As scholars of U.S. information privacy and
surveillance law, we respectfully urge the Court to
grant the writ of mandamus and to vacate the order
and prohibit such future orders from the FISC, or, in
the alternative, to grant the writ of certiorari to
review the Verizon Order."

Eugene Robinson belittles Obama's NSA reform proposals

What NSA reforms?

By Eugene Robinson, Monday, August 12, 7:55 PM

President Obama’s message about the government’s massive electronic surveillance programs came through loud and clear: Get over it.

The president used more soothing words in his pre-vacation news conference Friday, but that was the gist. With perhaps the application of a fig leaf here and a sheen of legalistic mumbo jumbo there, the snooping will continue.

Unless, of course, we demand that it end.

The modest reforms Obama proposed do not begin to address the fundamental question of whether we want the National Security Agency to log all of our phone calls and read at least some of our e-mails, relying on secret judicial orders from a secret court for permission. The president indicated he is willing to discuss how all this is done — but not whether.

High-ranking Yemeni official: reports of a foiled plot in Yemen were unfounded

"In Yemen, some government officials are dubious about the threat posed to U.S. facilities. A Yemeni official claimed earlier this week that the country had thwarted an al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula plot to take over cities and oil and gas installations in the eastern province of Hadramawt.

Yet other Yemeni government spokespeople, noting that the Islamist group maintains a foothold in the province, publicly pushed back against such claims. They said that the militant group lacks the intention or capability to launch such a plot.

A high-ranking Yemeni security official speaking on the condition of anonymity told McClatchy that the claims of a foiled plot had no basis in fact. That source bemusedly attributed media reports about imminent terror strikes to a single official’s comments, which he cast as a misguided attempt at shifting public opinion in the face of increasing and unpopular American drone strikes."

Obama-friendly Ezra Klein calls Edward Snowden a patriot

Snowden’s e-mail provider is closing, cannot legally say why

Source: Washington Post

The e-mail service used by National Security Agency (NSA) leaker Edward Snowden is suspending operations. And they can’t tell us why — although this cryptic post heavily suggests it has something to do with a government request for information:

"I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit. After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations. I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision. I cannot. I feel you deserve to know what’s going on — the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this. Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise. As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

What’s going to happen now? We’ve already started preparing the paperwork needed to continue to fight for the Constitution in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. A favorable decision would allow me resurrect Lavabit as an American company."

Professor on International Law at Princeton talks about Snowden

To summarize Robert Falk's long article, he explained that Russia was not legally obligated to send Snowden back to the USA, and called Snowden a "hero". Excerpt:

"Secondly, they are completely ignoring the degree to which Russia's grant of temporary refugee status to Snowden for one year was in full accord with the normal level of protection to be given to anyone accused of nonviolent political crimes in a foreign country, and pursued diplomatically and legally by the government that is seeking to indict and prosecute. In effect, for Russia to have turned Snowden over to the United States under these conditions would have been morally and politically scandalous considering the nature of his alleged crimes."

New York Times' journalist releases top secret information

Charlie Savage of the New York Times just published top-secret information in the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/us/broader-sifting-of-data-abroad-is-seen-by-nsa.html?hp&_r=0

He's not Glenn Greenwald though, so no need to get our underwear in a bunch.

Controversial NSA programs "played no part" in interception of Al Qaeda communications

"Officials in the U.S. wouldn't say who intercepted the initial suspect communications — the CIA, the National Security Agency, the Defense Intelligence Agency or one of the other intelligence agencies — that kicked off the sweeping pre-emptive closure of U.S. facilities. But an intelligence official said the controversial NSA programs that gather data on American phone calls or track Internet communications with suspected terrorists played no part in detecting the initial tip. That official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the spying publicly."

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/state-dept-posts-19-countries-remain-closed