{"id":160417,"date":"2015-06-21T19:59:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T19:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=160417"},"modified":"2015-06-21T19:59:43","modified_gmt":"2015-06-21T19:59:43","slug":"surveillance-court-moving-toward-renewal-nsa-spying-program-6-months","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/latest-news\/surveillance-court-moving-toward-renewal-nsa-spying-program-6-months\/","title":{"rendered":"Surveillance court moving toward renewal of NSA spying program for 6 months"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RT<\/a>) –\u00a0The secretive court that oversees US government spying requests has indicated that it will temporarily renew the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records collection authority despite a new reform law that ended the dragnet.<\/p>\n

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) \u2014 often seen<\/a> as a compliant “rubber
\nstamp”<\/em> for US government spying requests<\/a> \u2014 released an order<\/a> on Friday positing that lapsed spying
\npowers vested in the Patriot Act \u2014 which expired without renewal
\non June 1 — would not restrict the court from reauthorizing for
\nsix months the phone metadata collection program. The FISC order,
\nthough, is not yet an official revival of the NSA’s surveillance
\nprogram.<\/p>\n

FISC Judge F. Dennis Saylor wrote that it \u201chas the authority
\nto grant the applications and issue the requested orders.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In issuing the order, the FISC also maintained that, at least in
\nthis case, it did not need to consult an “amicus,”<\/em> or
\npanel, of privacy advocates created under the USA Freedom Act.<\/p>\n

“The statute provides some limited guidance, in that it
\nclearly contemplates that there will be circumstances where an
\namicus curiae is unnecessary (that is, ‘not appropriate’),”<\/em>
\nSaylor wrote. “At a minimum, it seems likely that those
\ncircumstances would include situations where the court concludes
\nthat it does not need the assistance or advice of amicus curiae
\nbecause the legal question is relatively simple, or is capable of
\nonly a single reasonable or rational outcome.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Privacy supporters decried the court’s handling of the privacy
\npanel.<\/p>\n

“Propriety in the spirit of the USA Freedom Act is when the
\ndecision at hand were to have an impact on the rights of
\nindividuals, not necessarily when the Court conjectures that a
\ndecision is self-evident,”<\/em> said Amie Stepanovich, US policy
\nmanager with the digital-rights advocacy group Access, according<\/a> to the National Journal. “It is
\nthe job of the amicus to raise issues that may not be readily
\napparent on first blush, meaning that what first may appear to be
\na clear-cut decision actually raises underlying questions. The
\nCourt must respect the presumption of the statute in favor of
\nappointing the amicus.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The USA Freedom Act is a law approved by Congress and signed by
\nPresident Barack Obama on June 2 to replace Patriot Act spying
\nprovisions with those that would allow bulk phone data collection
\nthrough a supposedly targeted basis that must be approved by the
\nFISC. In this case, private phone companies would be compelled to
\noffer government spies the sought after metadata, which can
\nindicate caller location, numbers dialed, length of
\nconversations, and other information, but not the actual
\nconversations.<\/p>\n

The USA Freedom Act gave the NSA six months to end the phone
\nmetadata program. Citing the Freedom Act\u2019s provision for a
\nsix-month transition period, the government quickly argued<\/a> that the NSA needs to restart the
\nbulk collection program in order to end it.<\/p>\n

In a filing to the FISC in early June<\/a>, the US Department of Justice (DOJ)
\nrequested permission to continue the \u201cbulk production of call
\ndetail records\u201d<\/em> for 180 days, arguing that the USA Freedom
\nAct allows a six-month transition period.<\/p>\n

DOJ officials also asserted that the USA Freedom Act extended
\nSection 215 powers from the Patriot Act through December 15,
\n2019.<\/p>\n

Section 215 actually expired on May 31, after the extraordinary
\nSunday session of the Senate adjourned without passing the
\nFreedom Act, partly thanks to the delaying tactics by Senators
\nRand Paul (R-KY), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), and Martin Heinrich (D-NM).
\nThe NSA had to shut down the program by the evening of May 31, to
\ncomply with the law. Senators eventually voted to pass<\/a> the House-approved text of the USA
\nFreedom Act on June 2.<\/p>\n

Many opponents of government surveillance see the USA Freedom Act
\nas a timid reform effort that will not adequately address NSA or
\nother government spying capabilities. Their fears were
\nexacerbated this week by comments made by former NSA chief
\nMichael Hayden, who mocked the slow pace of redress following
\nrevelations of mass NSA spying supplied by former intelligence
\ncontractor Edward Snowden two years ago.<\/p>\n

Hayden said<\/a> on Monday: “If somebody would come
\nup to me and say ‘Look, Hayden, here\u2019s the thing: This Snowden
\nthing is going to be a nightmare for you guys for about two
\nyears. And when we get all done with it, what you\u2019re going to be
\nrequired to do is that little 215 program about American
\ntelephony metadata \u2013 and by the way, you can still have access to
\nit, but you got to go to the court and get access to it from the
\ncompanies, rather than keep it to yourself’ \u2013 I go: ‘And this is
\nit after two years? Cool!’\u201d<\/em>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RT) –\u00a0The secretive court that oversees US government spying requests has indicated that it will temporarily renew the National Security Agency’s bulk phone records collection authority despite a new reform law that ended the dragnet. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) \u2014 often seen as a compliant “rubber stamp” for US government spying requests \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":160418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487,1614,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-160417","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news","8":"category-surveillance-big-brother","9":"category-latest-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}