Leaked memo details NSA talking points on Prism

[DainBramaged]

A leaked memo apparently sets out the NSA's "talking points" to its defenders in government who are discussing the situation with the press and critics. Mike Masnick at TechDirt has a point-by-point rebuttal of what is, overall, a very weak document. It's almost as though the NSA has grown accustomed to getting its own way by sneaking around behind America's back and doing whatever it wants, rather than by setting out its case with compelling logic:

The news articles have been discussing what purports to be a classified, lawfully-authorized order that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) issued under an Act of Congress – the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Under this Act, the FISA Court authorized a collection of business records. There is no secret program involved here – it is strictly authorized by a U.S. statute.

"There is no secret program here"? Bullshit. Why, then, have so many people, both in the Congress and the public been shocked at the extent to which the NSA is snarfing up data? This is a secret program, enabled by a secret interpretation of the FISA Amendments Act, by the FISA Court, which the DOJ and the NSA insist the public is not allowed to know. Yes, it's a secret program. Saying otherwise is simply lying.


http://boingboing.net/2013/06/14/leaked-memo-details-nsa-talkin.html

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/713590-fisa-business-records-talking-points-6-6-13.html


http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130613/17490723465/leaked-nsas-talking-points-defending-nsa-surveillance.shtml

[Kolesar]

1. Them being "shocked" is just a put on to get attention

"Hey, remember my name? Send me campaign donations."

"I'm the biggest critic of the Democrats" or, alternately, :
"I'm the biggest critic of the Republicans"

[Major Hogwash]

2. Well, they're reading all of your posts.

So, evidently you don't care much about your amenity.

[Monkie]

3. reauthorized ongoing 90-day renewal periods for 7 years is not rubberstamping!

haha

[SlimJimmy]

4. NSA talking points

FISA/NSA Talking Points

o The news articles have been discussing what purports to be a classified, lawfully-authorized order that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) issued under an Act of Congress - the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Under this Act, the FISA Court authorized a collection of business records. There is no secret program involved here - it is
strictly authorized by a U.S. statute.

o The FISA Court's order for a lawfully-authorized collection of business records does not allow the Government to listen in on anyone's telephone calls. It does not authorize the collection of any call content, individual names, or organization names. It authorizes only metadata collection, which includes barebones records - such as a telephone number or the length of a
call.

o This legal tool, as enacted by Congress, has been critical in protecting America. It has been essential in thwarting at least one major terrorist attack to our country in the past few years.

o This legal tool also allows our counterterrorism and law enforcement officials to close the gap on foreign and domestic terrorist activities. It enables our Intelligence Community to discover whether foreign terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in
terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States.

o Despite what appears to be a broad scope in the FISA Court's order, the Intelligence Community uses only a small fraction of a percent of the business records collected to pursue terrorism subjects.

o All three branches - Congress, the Courts, and the Executive Branch - review and sign off on FISA collection authorities. Congress passed FISA, and the Intelligence Committees are regularly and fully briefed on how it is used.

o The FISA Court authorizes intelligence collection only after the Intelligence Community has proven its case, based on underlying facts and investigations.

o This legal tool has been reauthorized only after ongoing 90-day renewal periods. That means that every 90 days, the Department of Justice and the FBI must prove to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that they have the facts and legal basis to renew this legal authority. It is not a rubber stamp.

o FISA-authorized collections are subject to strict controls and procedures under oversight of the Department of Justice, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FISA Court, to ensure that they comply with the Constitution and laws of the United States and appropriately protect privacy and civil liberties.

[timdog44]

5. Although this is

a very convoluted and mysterious situation, I want to say that I have been educated about this espionage "stuff", especially thanks to nadinbrzezinski and the articles written by her. I am having to walk back some of my previous statements. This is definitely has a bigger scope than I originally imagined. And so I have said it.

However, I still stand by my mercenary statements. They are scum bags. Bottom suckers. Sell outs. Not a patriotic shred of _________ and work for $$$$$ and sell for $$$$$$, to whoever has the most $$$$$. And Snowden, though he did expose this, is still very fishy to me. I am reserving judgement on Greenwald until further note. I need to read and research more on him.

And I still stand by my statement that surveillance is a necessary evil. It just needs some better regulations and we need better reps to make sure that happens.

Not sure how to go about saying this to the whole community, but I have said it.

[DirtyDawg]

6. OK, tell me...

...that your use of 'there's nothing going on here', and that people are 'shocked'...wasn't intended to reprise 'I'm shocked...shocked...to see that gambling (read: intelligence gathering) is going on here.' The politicians that claim they were never made aware are either lying, admitting that they skipped meetings where the information was presented (probably for a fund raiser), attended but fell asleep, or that their staffs that were tasked to pour over and summarize the reports didn't do their job or that they stuck those summaries in the 'to do' stack. Once again I say, if Lennie Briscoe could 'check the LUDs' on Law & Order for the past twenty years, you damn well know that all this stuff was being stored somewhere and could be accessed if need be.

[cantbeserious]

7. A PR Campaign For A Surveillance Program - Really?

eom

[dkf]

8. Makes you wonder what Orwell would think.

[Major Hogwash]

9. More donuts.

Because they've got holes.