General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMeanwhile, the truly independent board set up to watch over spying programs is ignored
President Barack Obama walks down the West Wing Colonnade alongside James Clapper on June 5, 2010
The NSA
Obama Puts Spies in Charge of Investigating Spies
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The Review Group on Intelligence Communications and Technologies (RGOICAT?) will be headed by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, aka the official who currently oversees the spying in question. And its not yet clear whether the board will have any real government outsiders on it, or if theyll all be insiders. In a memo yesterday, Clapper said hell be assembling the panel.
Also, per the presidents memo, the panels first priority appears to be making sure that federal programs guarantee the countrys national security (which, presumably they already do), rather than ensuring the NSA isnt abusing its power. Obama wrote:
The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the U.S. employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust.
Under Clappers direction, the board is supposed to issue its first set of findings within 60 daysto the president. Meanwhile, the truly independent privacy and civil liberties board the U.S. has already set up to keep watch over spying programs continues to be ignored.
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-08-13/obama-puts-spies-in-charge-of-investigating-spies#r=hpt-ls
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A Privacy Board Was Supposed to Protect Americans From NSA Spies
By Chris Strohm
June 27, 2013
In the weeks since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden exposed government spying into millions of Americans phone calls and e-mails, the Obama administration has reassured the public that there are restraints on U.S. espionage. One check against Washingtons vast counterterrorism efforts is supposed to be the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In a June 17 interview with Charlie Rose, the president said, Ill be meeting with them, and what I want to do is to set up and structure a national conversation about privacy.
The board is staffed with five presidential appointees who get top secret security clearances and, in theory, the power to shape both legislation and regulations to assure that espionage undertaken in the name of the Patriot Act or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act doesnt trample on the publics privacy rights. Thats how the 9/11 Commission, which proposed the board in 2004, envisioned it would work.
Hamstrung by Congress and ignored by two presidents, the board has been powerless. After neglecting it during his first term, Obama met with board members for the first time on June 21. They never weighed in on the NSAs Prism program, and had they tried, its questionable whether the board would have gotten very far. Its recommendations arent binding; the White House, spy agencies, and lawmakers arent required to take its advice. And its mandate is virtually impossible to carry out: Its supposed to tell the public if the governments secret programs are overreaching, yet it cant reveal any classified details.
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Because Congress had placed the board in the executive branch and made it subject to White House oversight, the Bush administration could insert itself into its business. Recalls Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Bill Clinton who served on the board, We couldnt put out a press statement without getting clearance from the White House press secretary. In early 2007 the members began drafting their first report for Congress, a cursory rundown of who the board had met with. It offered no policy prescriptions. The administration made edits on all but five pages of the 42-page document, prompting Davis to resign in protest over what he considered political meddling.
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http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-06-27/a-privacy-board-was-supposed-to-protect-americans-from-nsa-spies
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)Pholus
(4,062 posts)It is funny how you have to trend hard-rightie to have the necessary club credentials (read clearances) to participate.
KoKo
(84,711 posts)He's been busy..fighting the Al Quaeda and it just slipped his mind? But, it does seem that someone should remind him before he spends taxpayer money on the Clapper Board. Redundancy is a waste of money.
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A Privacy Board Was Supposed to Protect Americans From NSA Spies
Photograph by Media Photos/Getty Images
Politics & Policy
A Privacy Board Was Supposed to Protect Americans From NSA Spies
By Chris Strohm
June 27, 2013
In the weeks since former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden exposed government spying into millions of Americans phone calls and e-mails, the Obama administration has reassured the public that there are restraints on U.S. espionage. One check against Washingtons vast counterterrorism efforts is supposed to be the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. In a June 17 interview with Charlie Rose, the president said, Ill be meeting with them, and what I want to do is to set up and structure a national conversation about privacy.