Congress, Constitutional Law, Courts, Media, Politics, Society, Supreme Court

Obama Administration Confirms Massive Surveillance Program Of U.S. Citizens

President_Barack_ObamaWhile the media in the United States (with some notable exceptions) have been criticized for relatively soft coverage of attacks on civil liberties by the Obama Administration, the British press appears to be filling the gap. The Guardian is reporting on a massive surveillance program by the Obama Administration where the government has ordered Verizon (and presumably other carriers) to turn over all calls made within the United States and calls between the United States and other countries. The surveillance was conducted under an order from our controversial secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and demanded by the Justice Department and the FBI. The Administration has confirmed the existence of the program — another blow to civil liberties under Attorney General Eric Holder and this president. It also adds another area where Obama officials appear less than candid with Congress. [Update: USA Today first revealed aspects of this program in 2006]

The order signed by Judge Roger Vinson requires the company to turn over the phone numbers, location, duration, time and unique identifiers for all calls for all citizens. There is no effort to confine the search for individuals connected to any investigation. It is a sweeping surveillance on all citizens. Of course, just as Democrats have remained quiet over the recent attacks on the free press, it is not clear if even this abuse will generate opposition in Congress. Civil libertarians have been complaining for years about these programs and have met a wall of silence from Democrats protecting President Obama and Eric Holder.

In February, the Administration succeeded in blocking a challenge to its surveillance policies by arguing that any confirmation of such programs would put American lives at risk. Now that the case is dismissed, they have simply acknowledged the program. The decision is Clapper v. Amnesty International, No. 11-1025, and it is a true nightmare for civil liberties. The Supreme Court rejected the standing of civil liberties groups and citizens to challenge the Obama Administration’s surveillance programs. President Obama has long been criticized for his opposition to such lawsuits and his Justice Department has continued a successful attack on the ability of citizens to challenge the unconstitutional actions of their government in the war on terror. The 5-4 opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. insulates such programs from judicial review in yet another narrowing of standing rules.

Alito rejected the ability of an array of journalists, lawyers and human rights advocates to challenge the constitutionality of the 2008 law allowing secret surveillance without meeting constitutional standards of probable cause. Alito simply said that the parties could not prove that they were subject to surveillance — since the Obama Administration has classified such evidence — and insisted that their fears and precautionary actions are merely efforts to “manufacture standing by incurring costs in anticipation of nonimminent harms.”

Alito wrote that just because no one may be able to challenge the law is no reason to recognize standing — a position that guts the separation of powers principles underlying judicial review. He also cites to the secret FISA as judicial review — a truly laughable proposition. I have been in that court as a NSA legal intern and the thought that it constitutes any real form of review is a preposterous notion. I have written and testified on this court in the past.

Now we can see the inevitable consequence of this secret court and the Administration’s surveillance program. The Administration is creating a massive databank for all calls, including calls within the United States. This surveillance program is the result of a sense of political immunity reflected in this Administration. With some Democrats blindly following this President, there appears no concern over excessive surveillance or the ever-expanding security state. It is the final evidence of how Obama has truly crippled the civil liberties movement in the United States.

Source: NPR

118 thoughts on “Obama Administration Confirms Massive Surveillance Program Of U.S. Citizens”

  3. “The Constitution of the United States is a law for rulers and people, equally in war and in peace, and covers with the shield of its protection all classes of men, at all times and under all circumstances. No doctrine involving more pernicious consequences was ever invented by the wit of man than that any of its provisions can be suspended during any of the great exigencies of government. Such a doctrine leads directly to anarchy or despotism, but the theory of necessity on which it is based is false, for the government, within the Constitution, has all the powers granted to it which are necessary to preserve its existence.” — Ex parte Milligan

  4. Pbh,

    I’m sorry, but I have a problem with amending the constitution via executive fiat.

  5. Pingback: The NSA’s sweeping collection of phone records » Mano Singham

  7. Chris Moody ‏@Chris_Moody 27m tweet

    We live in a neat world where a guy in Brazil, (@ggreenwald) writing for a British paper, (@Guardian) can shake up the US with one story.

  9. Hey “boys and girls” … Cheezus is bringin’ democracy to the world … unless … before “America scarfs it up a sh*ts on it” … the wee people prevail.

    OH! In the Sky!

  10. While the igPays are spying on you the Dogs are taking care of business. Here is an article from the internet:

    PEOPLE MAGAZINE

    Subscribe for instant access to PEOPLE

    Pui knew something wasn’t right.

    When the dog spotted a white plastic bag lying in a trash dump in Thailand’s Tha Rua district, he took it in his mouth, brought it to the patio of his home and barked as loud as he could.

    His owner’s 12-year-old niece came to see what the fuss was about, and discovered a newborn baby girl – still alive – inside of the bag, reports The Bangkok Post.

    Pui’s owner, Gumnerd Thongmak, and his niece, Sudarat, rushed the infant to Tha Rua Hospital, where doctors determined the baby was premature, weighing just 4 lbs. The infant has since been transferred to another hospital, and area officials are looking for her mother.

    Get more stories on your favorite celebrities by subscribing now.

    Meanwhile, Pui’s good deed hasn’t gone unnoticed. On Monday, he received a leather collar and a medal from the Tha Rua district Red Cross chapter as a sign of gratitude, and The Miracle of Life Foundation gave Gumnerd a $300 reward. But the heroics should come as no surprise to those who know Pui, a neighborhood watchdog of sorts: The district chief told The Bangkok Post that the pooch is regularly seen sniffing around the community.

  11. Yep, Blouise… “the straw” 😉 (I had intended to get back to you on that one.)

  14. Thursday, Jun 6, 2013

    “Now we are all persons of interest”

    NSA whistle-blower Thomas Drake tells Salon why the Verizon surveillance is the new normal, and may never be undone

    By Natasha Lennard

    http://www.salon.com/2013/06/06/no_surprise_says_nsa_whistleblower_thomas_drake/

    Excerpt:

    “I think there is a great irony that the Guardian — a U.K. newspaper — is holding a mirror up to U.S. policy, with a story written by Glenn Greenwald, who is based in Brazil.”

    But while Drake sees a slim silver lining in the growing attention paid to sprawling government surveillance, he stressed that reasserting Fourth Amendment protections in a meaningful way would be an uphill battle, requiring a government committee with the political will and resolve akin to the committee created by Sen. Frank Church in the 1970s.

    It was, after all, Church who cautioned in 1975, “The [National Security Agency’s] capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide.”

    Church’s dystopic projections are our reality. As Drake told Salon, total, blanket surveillance is “a cancer on the body politic” that will be very hard to remove indeed.

    End of excerpt

  17. Wyden’s recent press release:

    http://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-statement-on-alleged-large-scale-collection-of-phone-records

    Thursday, June 6, 2013

    Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), released this statement following news reports alleging that the U.S. Government has collected the phone records of millions of Verizon customers. Wyden is a senior member of the Senate Intelligence committee.

    “The program Senators Feinstein and Chambliss publicly referred to today is one that I have been concerned about for years. I am barred by Senate rules from commenting on some of the details at this time. However, I believe that when law-abiding Americans call their friends, who they call, when they call, and where they call from is private information. Collecting this data about every single phone call that every American makes every day would be a massive invasion of Americans’ privacy.

    The administration has an obligation to give a substantive and timely response to the American people and I hope this story will force a real debate about the government’s domestic surveillance authorities. The American people have a right to know whether their government thinks that the sweeping, dragnet surveillance that has been alleged in this story is allowed under the law and whether it is actually being conducted. Furthermore, they have a right to know whether the program that has been described is actually of value in preventing attacks. Based on several years of oversight, I believe that its value and effectiveness remain unclear.”

    Ron Wyden ‏@RonWyden 1h

    RE: #NSA tracking- Who law-abiding Americans call, when they call, & where they call from is private information http://1.usa.gov/11v2CYb

  18. Verizon Breaks Silence on Top-Secret Surveillance of its Customers

    By David Kravets
    06.06.13
    1:48 PM

    Verizon responded to allegations that the telecom was served with a top-secret court order demanding it provide the FBI and the NSA with customer call records continuously, and in bulk, saying it respects “customers’ privacy” but must comply with the law.

    The telecom’s comments came a day after the Guardian disclosed that a secretive U.S. court, known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, issued a sweeping order requiring Verizon Business Services — formerly MCI — to give the NSA a feed of metadata on all calls within the United States and between the United States and foreign countries on an “ongoing, daily basis” for three months. Verizon declined to comment on the “accuracy” of the story, but noted that the order published by the Guardian “forbids Verizon from revealing the order’s existence.”

    “Verizon continually takes steps to safeguard its customers’ privacy. Nevertheless, the law authorizes the federal courts to order a company to provide information in certain circumstances, and if Verizon were to receive such an order, we would be required to comply,” Randy Milch, Verizon’s general counsel, said in a letter to employees.

    Presumably, all the nation’s carriers have been ordered to turn over such data that includes the phone numbers of both parties involved in the calls, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) number for mobile callers, calling card numbers used in the call, and the time and duration of the calls. It does not include the name or address of the subscriber or other account information. Nor does the order allow the content of calls to be recorded and collected. It may, however, include the location of the calls through cell-site data.

    An anonymous Obama administration official told the AP today the data was a “critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats.” Wired

  19. Bob, Esq. 1, June 6, 2013 at 12:34 pm

    “Here’s to principle centered reasoning.”

    Let me see if I can craft a principled response.

    Once upon a time there was a friendly Constable On Patrol on every other corner who watched what was going on and was prepared to respond to any small scale disturbance. He wore a funny suit, a hat that looked like half a watermelon and carried a stick attached to a leather thong. The kids liked him, mostly, when he wasn’t rousting them for smoking or sending them back to school. This COP also had a pretty fair notion of who lived in his territory, what they did for a living, who their friends were and so on. It was almost as if he could see right inside the buildings.

    150 years later the cops don’t wear funny suits, funny hats or carry silly sticks. But, they do know who lives in their territory, what they do for a living, who their friends are and so on.

    And, so does your local Wal-Mart. And your local cable provider. And your wireless provider. And your mail-person. And your mother.

    Now, if we can believe that:

    “the published court order pertains only to data such as a telephone number or the length of a call, and not the subscribers’ identities or the content of the telephone calls . . .”

    then I am not sure that this is any worse than tracking a vehicle by means of its use of E-Z Pass, or tracking an individual by means of Metro Pass.

    I agree that the “if” is a big “IF”.

    pbh

  20. Alright, I agree with most of what has been said, even though I find it amusing that you think there is a left in government. But where was your anger over the DNA swiping. Oh, you’re not criminals! You aren’t going to be arrested, so it’s not important. I hate how Americans are so incredibly self-centered.

    Turley, if you had something on this, I missed it and apologize. Please repost.

    Do you know what the DNA testing is going to do to those who have been filling our privately-owned jails? Do you understand how this will affect those who are mostly targeted by law enforcement? Swiped while black will create a racial database. How will that be used?

    Small-minded, self-seeking, self-involved Americans will never change things and if they by some miracle did, the change will not go far enough.

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