Lawless NSA Spying Exposed
Laws are made to be obeyed. Washington acts like they don't exist. Big Brother is official policy.
It's longstanding. It's no secret. It's well known. Now we know more. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) deserves credit. On August 21, it headlined "Intelligence Agency Attorney on How 'Multi-Communication Transactions' Allowed for Domestic Surveillance." EFF filed a FOIA lawsuit. For over a year, it fought for public disclosure. It demanded release of an 86-page FISA court opinion.
In October 2011, it was gotten. It called NSA's so-called "upstream collection" (UC) system illegal and unconstitutional. It violates the FISA Amendments Act. It breaches constitutional provisions. NSA violates the letter and spirit of federal law. Its UC occurs when it "gets a copy of Internet traffic as it flows through major telecommunications hubs, and searches through for 'selectors,' like an email address or a keyword."
Declassified documents show NSA collected 58,000 or more domestic emails. It obtained other US communications. It's done it annually for at least three years. It's likely done it much longer. It constitutes a gross invasion of privacy. It's unconstitutional. It violates Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment provisions. It's unrelated to terrorism.
In February 2006, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts appointed US District Court for the District of Columbia Judge John D. Bates to serve on the FISA court. From May 2009 - February 2013, he was presiding judge. He said (at least) three times over a three-year period, Washington...
..."disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program. (T)he volume and nature of the information (NSA's) been collecting is fundamentally different than what the court had been led to believe."