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.

Re:We have met the enemy ....

[Anonymous Coward]

So what are we waiting for?! Let's bomb the sh*t out of...us?

Re:We have met the enemy ....

[bitt3n]

We have met the enemy, and he is [REDACTED].

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

[Bob9113]

On a day national security is rallied behind by those in power to protect us

Do not forget that, according to the sitting US President, the greatest threat to national security is cyber-attack. And one of the greatest weaknesses in our cyber armor is the damage the NSA has done to the cryptography standards that our citizens and corporations rely upon for infosec. Well intentioned though they may be, the NSAs actions have harmed national cyber-security.

Re:The timing is impeccable

[Bob9113]

If Obama actually said [that cyber was the greatest threat to national security]

Hah! Actually, I was wrong. It wasn't Obama. It was James Clapper. :)

"This comes shortly after the release of the Worldwide Threat Assessment, in which U.S. Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, identifies cyber attacks and cyber espionage as the nationâ(TM)s biggest threat, passing that of terrorism."

Re:The timing is impeccable

[NatasRevol]

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

Will we expect charges?

[gstoddart]

the NSA illegally using phone data for three years, and evidence that Clapper knowingly mislead the public about metadata collection.

Should we expect criminal charges, or will we find out that since he lied to protect the politicians they'll go soft on this do nothing?

Because he's either committed a criminal act, or he's just a stooge covering up for someone else.

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.

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?

Re:So, when will heads roll?

[gstoddart]

Except that there're virtually always young Turks or gadflies or other types looking to make a name for themselves or upset the applecart when those in power show signs of weakness.

Sure there are, but since you'd be trying to prosecute the head of a federal agency (or near to it), you'd likely need the help of the Attorney General of the US.

And if he's decided (or been told) that it's not in the national interest to do this, it simply won't happen.

A junior prosecutor can't file charges his boss tells him he's not allowed to charge. He'd basically get fired or removed from the case.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not disagreeing with you that someone should be charged -- I'm just of the opinion that as a practical matter it might be impossible for someone with the right jurisdiction to do anything about this to either have or exercise the will to prosecute.

And I vaguely recall that the feds retain the right to basically say "you have no standing to sue because we said so". I have no idea of what entity could undertake this and be in any way free of being shut down by the feds who cite national security.

The deck is unfortunately stacked against anybody who wants to prosecute this, since it could mean taking on the entire federal government.

Oh look

[Anonymous Coward]

NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/11/nsa-americans-personal-data-israel-documents

Of course they were collecting

[smooth wombat]

I'm not sure how they, or anyone, can claim they weren't, and aren't now, siphoning every phone call and email yet are somehow able to target specific individuals or look for keywords.

If you're looking for keywords, then obviously you have to search everything. If you're looking for a specific word in a document, you have to search the entire document. You can't pick and choose.

The same with digital communications. Unlike a copper wire to someone's house where you can place a tap or read mail destined only to their address, you have to look at all traffic and then filter. Thus, you have to look at everyone's email and listen in on every phone call to find what you are looking for.

I barely qualify as geeky let alone as an expert, but even I know you can't claim to somehow, miraculously, target one individual's traffic in the stream while ignoring everyone else.

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.