A former CIA officer says the secret US court that governs surveillance activities has taken a œbad step” by ruling that the National Security Agency can continue its secret collection of phone records of all American citizens.
œObviously this is a bad step because Congress has been talking about restricting what the NSA can actually do and now we have the courts going ahead and sending the opposite signal that it™s alright for the NSA to continue to do what it™s doing,” Philip Giraldi told Press TV on Saturday.
œThe problem is here that the court in this case, the FISA court, and the NSA are working together to collect information that in three months time, depending on Congress getting its act together, might be illegal,” Giraldi said.
A spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper publicly announced the court™s ruling on Friday.
“DNI Clapper has decided to declassify and disclose publicly that the government filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the court renewed that authority,” Clapper’s spokesman Shawn Turner said.
The ruling authorizes the surveillance program for only limited periods of time and the government has to submit new requests for re-authorization every several months.
According to the ruling, the NSA can collect records, including phone numbers, call times and call durations, on all phone calls made in the US.
The secret court™s decision comes as several revelations made so far by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden show how the US spy agency is conducting various controversial surveillance programs.
AHT/HJ
Copyright: Press TV