Some of our Senators still act like representing the People and standing up for the Constitution, kind of matters ...
Senator Slams Domestic Spying: ‘Secret Law Has No Place In America’
by Hayes Brown, thinkprogress.org -- Jul 23, 2013
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At CAP’s event [Center for American Progress] on Tuesday, Wyden claimed -- as he did during the debate over drones earlier this year -- that there’s a large gap between what the American people believe a law to be and how the Executive Branch interprets it. When it comes to the siphoning up of data from American citizens, “the public was actually misled,” Wyden said, in statements from top intelligence officials including NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
That secret interpretation of the law is upheld, Wyden said, through the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court, which saw its powers expanded greatly after 9/11. While originally meant to rule on wiretap petitions against possible foreign agents under FISA, the Court has now become the source of broad rulings backing the gathering of information from broad swaths of Americans indefinitely. “There is no other court in America that has strayed so far from the adversarial process,” Wyden said, pointing out that since its rulings are secret, they’re almost impossible to appeal.
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Courts with out appeal, without an adversarial process?
Hmmm, kind of seems like some Agencies view their activities, as somehow above -- and outside of -- the Law ... that us mere mortals must abide by.
Speaking Truth to Power ... should never go out of style ...
(Or go out of our hearing range, either.)
Wyden on NSA Domestic Surveillance at Center for American Progress (Video)
by wyden.senate.gov, Communications Office -- July 23, 2013
On July 23, 2013, Senator Wyden's gave remarks on NSA domestic surveillance and the PATRIOT Act at the Center for American Progress. In his speech Wyden warns that "if we don't seize this unique moment in history to reform our surveillance laws and practices, we will all live to regret it."
Progress Event on NSA Surveillance
Remarks As Prepared for Delivery for the Center for American Progress
Senator Ron Wyden, D-(OR):
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From my position on the Senate Intelligence Committee, I had seen government activities conducted under the umbrella of the Patriot Act that I knew would astonish most Americans.
At the time, Senate rules about classified information barred me from giving any specifics of what I’d seen except to describe it as Secret Law a secret interpretation of the Patriot Act, issued by a secret court, that authorizes secret surveillance programs programs that I and colleagues think go far beyond the intent of the statute.
If that is not enough to give you pause, then consider that not only were the existence of and the legal justification for these programs kept completely secret from the American people, senior officials from across the government were making statements to the public about domestic surveillance that were clearly misleading and at times simply false. Senator Mark Udall and I tried again and again to get the executive branch to be straight with the public, but under the classification rules observed by the Senate we are not even allowed to tap the truth out in Morse code and we tried just about everything else we could think of to warn the American people.
But as I’ve said before, one way or another the truth always wins out.
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So, today I’m going to deliver another warning: If we do not seize this unique moment in our constitutional history to reform our surveillance laws and practices, we will all live to regret it. I’ll have more to say about the consequences of the omnipresent surveillance state, but as you listen to this talk, ponder that most of us have a computer in our pocket that potentially can be used to track and monitor us 24/7.
The combination of increasingly advanced technology with a breakdown in the checks and balances that limit government action could lead us to a surveillance state that cannot be reversed.
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The secret rulings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court have interpreted the Patriot Act, as well as section 702 of the FISA statute, in some surprising ways, and these rulings are kept entirely secret from the public. These rulings can be astoundingly broad. The one that authorizes the bulk collection of phone records is as broad as any I have ever seen.
This reliance of government agencies on a secret body of law has real consequences. Most Americans don’t expect to know the details about ongoing sensitive military and intelligence activities, but as voters they absolutely have a need and a right to know what their government thinks it is permitted to do, so that they can ratify or reject decisions that elected officials make on their behalf. To put it another way, Americans recognize that intelligence agencies will sometimes need to conduct secret operations, but they don’t think those agencies should be relying on secret law.
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Talk about a Senator with guts!
Thank you Senator Ron Wyden, for standing up for what's right.
Thank you for speaking out Sir ... still.
Thank you for daring to take the job with all due seriousness, that your Constitutionally empowered-post deserves.