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The Executive Order That Led To Mass Spying, As Told By NSA Alumni

Posted by samzenpus on from the I-see-you dept.

An anonymous reader writes with this Ars piece about the executive order that is the legal basis for the U.S. government's mass spying on citizens. One thing sits at the heart of what many consider a surveillance state within the US today. The problem does not begin with political systems that discourage transparency or technologies that can intercept everyday communications without notice. Like everything else in Washington, there's a legal basis for what many believe is extreme government overreach—in this case, it's Executive Order 12333, issued in 1981. “12333 is used to target foreigners abroad, and collection happens outside the US," whistleblower John Tye, a former State Department official, told Ars recently. "My complaint is not that they’re using it to target Americans, my complaint is that the volume of incidental collection on US persons is unconstitutional.” The document, known in government circles as "twelve triple three," gives incredible leeway to intelligence agencies sweeping up vast quantities of Americans' data. That data ranges from e-mail content to Facebook messages, from Skype chats to practically anything that passes over the Internet on an incidental basis. In other words, EO 12333 protects the tangential collection of Americans' data even when Americans aren't specifically targeted—otherwise it would be forbidden under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978.

3 of 180 comments (clear)

  1. Haply so, but exec orders and agencies by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    President and agencies still swear to uphold the Constitution and have no business violating it, executive orders or not.
    Any orders ought to be followed to the extent the Constitution allows, not beyond, and those going beyond deserve
    to be punished. That should include Presidents, though such sanctions are pretty broken.

  2. Re:Different era by Feces's+Edge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    He also ramped up the war on drugs, something that so many freedom-hating scumbags in our government have done. So he wasn't a good president, and he definitely didn't want "small government."

    But what does that have to do with him being to blame for this specific issue?

  3. Re:Executive Orders Need to Expire, and Quickly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If the president had to go through congress to do everything, nothing would get done.

    I'd rather nothing get done than allow one man to be able to use 'I am king' orders.