Want proof that NSA snooping thwarts terror plots? Stand by, Senator Feinstein says

[DirkGently]

60. You're mischaracterizing the entire issue.

The question is not whether we have FISA courts, or whether you can have FISA court's, for Pete's sake. It's whether the surveillance is actually being conducted legally and constitutionally.

We know the PRISM law was being interpreted unconstitutionally as late as 2011. We know that the administration will not release the ruling, and will not explain how it's complying with it.

FISA doesn't sit in the NSA offices and watch exactly what they do. Courts issue rulings on what information can be gathered under what circumstances. We don't know what legal interpretations are being applied, or what the courts are being told.

For example, all the surveillance we're talking about is supposed to FOREIGN. As in FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE SURVEILLANCE ACT.

http://www.vice.com/read/the-fbi-wants-to-wiretap-every-us-citizen-online

Nearly every US official who has come forward to defend PRISM has cited Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as justification for the program. A DNI fact sheet released on July 6 says of Section 702: “Targeting procedures are designed to ensure that an acquisition targets non-US persons reasonably believed to be outside the United States for specific purposes.“ But to what extent must an NSA analyst be sure that their target is a non-US person? Only 51 percent according to Edward Snowden (who was also revealed to be the Washington Post's source on this story). The sheer volume of data being collected by the FBI and NSA means that even if the margin of error was below 1 percent, the amount of data illegally accessed by these agencies would be massive.

So, the NSA apparently thinks "foreign" means "51%" of what's being gathered is *supposed* to be foreign. Has a court ruled on the interpretation that "foreign" means just 51% foreign? That sounds like a rather radical interpretation of the term.

And, even IF the NSA *says* it's aiming for 51% foreign, how does it make that calculation? With no one checking, we'll never know.

No one's tragically confused about what's going on here. It's not the concept of FISA courts that is at issue.