Trove of NSA Documents and FISC Opinions Declassified Thanks to EFF Lawsuit

An anonymous reader writes "Thanks to an EFF lawsuit, the office of the Director of National Intelligence is releasing declassified redacted versions of various documents relating to the NSA's domestic surveillance activities. The documents are being released on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks." The EFF is hosting the documents, which are searchable. A few initial findings were posted yesterday evening; they include (thanks to another anonymous reader) the NSA illegally using phone data for three years, and evidence that Clapper knowingly mislead the public about metadata collection.

Comments

We have met the enemy ....

[Anonymous Coward]

And he is us.

The timing is impeccable

[Guru80]

Releasing the information on the anniversary of 9/11 can't be completely coincidental. On a day national security is rallied behind by those in power to protect us from another such incident it comes across as just a PR move to lessen the outrage if possible of those that will be up in arms over their activities.

Re:The timing is impeccable

[CanHasDIY]

In other news, [Group A] released a statement indicating that the biggest threat to national security today is [something Group A makes money from].

Re:The timing is impeccable

[NatasRevol]

To be fair, he probably had no idea there was one every year.

So, when will heads roll?

[TrumpetPower!]

The news is full of all sorts of illegal shit that the NSA and its lackeys have been doing for years, yet I haven't heard a peep about any hints of prosecution.

Where're the prosecutors with the balls to hold the watchers accountable?

b&

Re:So, when will heads roll?

[gstoddart]

Where're the prosecutors with the balls to hold the watchers accountable?

That of course assumes that the DoJ would have any interest in pursuing this, and that the politicians who should have damned well known this was happening want to do anything but sweep this under the rug.

It's hard not to believe this was done without anybody in authority knowing it was happening -- at which point the only people who could prosecute for this are part of the problem.

Is this 'rogue agency stepping outside of its mandate', or just part of a bigger problem where government has decided the laws don't really matter?

What's the problem?

[Anonymous Coward]

I run a email spam filter. The server looks at every email body/envelope I receive and learns from it to identify spam. All major email providers do it and no one ever accused them of spying. Google even goes one step further and offers ads based on the email context.

  Is spam filtering spying? Is it bad?

Re:Will we expect charges?

[ColdWetDog]

Do you expect the head of a spy service NOT to lie? This is at the top of the whole chain of problems with 'intelligence'.

The basic safety valve in the US approach to government isn't 'democracy' (which we aren't) or some sort of special affinity by a magical deity. It is the concept and application of checks and balances. Nobody can ultimately be trusted. No institution can be trusted for any period of time. You MUST have the ability to check the scope and application of any government department's mission.

An intelligence service beholden to no one with essentially unlimited funds is a scary monster indeed.

Where's the hole in your head?

[Uberbah]

Will a Google SWAT team show up at your house based on emails about hydroponics? No, but one from the DEA might.

Facebook and Google want to sell ads. Whereas the government wants to prosecute people with illegally gathered evidence, as when the NSA feeds data to the DEA. Pretty fucking serious difference.