Church Committee staff: NSA 'dwarfs' past spying scandals

[bananas]

Source: The Hill

Former surveillance investigators want Congress to create a committee to examine the controversial surveillance practices at the National Security Agency (NSA).

"Such congressional action is urgently needed to restore the faith of citizens in the intelligence community and, indeed, in our federal government," a group of former members and staff of the Church Committee — which investigated government surveillance practices in the 1970s — said in an open letter to Congress and President Obama on Monday.

The group called on Congress to create another committee to investigate government surveillance programs — including a controversial NSA program that collects information about Americans' phone calls — which first came under public scrutiny after leaks from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden began last year.

<snip>

"As former members and staff of the Church Committee we can authoritatively say: the erosion of public trust currently facing our intelligence community is not novel, nor is its solution."

<snip>

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/200990-church-committee-staff-nsa-dwarfs-past-spying-scandals

[bananas]

1. Former members, staff say need for new Church committee

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/17/221524/former-members-staff-say-need.html

Former members, staff say need for new Church committee

By Jonathan S. Landay
McClatchy Washington Bureau
March 17, 2014 Updated 50 minutes ago

Nearly 40 years ago, Congress formed a special committee to investigate the U.S. intelligence community in connection with a series of domestic spying scandals.

There’s a need today for a similar effort, say 15 members and former staff of the former Church committee , citing the revelations of the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ daily communications data.

A new version of the Church committee should be formed “to undertake a thorough, and public, examination of current intelligence community practices affecting the rights of Americans and to make specific recommendations for future oversight and reform,” the signatories wrote in an open letter to President Barack Obama and Congress.

The letter comes a week after the current chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., accused the CIA of conducting unauthorized searches of computers used by her staff to compile a top-secret report on the spy agency’s infamous detential and interrogation program.

<snip>

[riderinthestorm]

2. Pfft. DU experts tell us over and over there's nothing to see here, move along

NSA surveillance is legal and innocuous!

The Church committee members versus anonymous internet dudes! Who ya gonna believe?!

[Maedhros]

5. All glory to Hypnotoad! [n/t]

[George II]

11. Well, if they were around 40 years old when they conducted their investigation....

....they're around 80 years old now.

[WillyT]

12. And... That Has To Do With... What... Exactly...

[Enthusiast]

29. Old people know nothing?

[riderinthestorm]

17. Ah, so you're an ageist authoritarian. Noted nt

[ForgoTheConsequence]

22. Is ageism a tolerable forum of bigotry now?

It was bad enough when the NSA defenders used transphobic language towards Bradley Manning.

[Enthusiast]

30. "NSA surveillance is legal and innocuous!" It's healthy and invigorating.

And it helps build strong bodies 12 ways.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

36. We've known all of this since 1793. Or maybe 1973.

And he's a coward, a COWARD!!! A real hero would have hit his toe with a hammer and then turned himself in.

[bananas]

3. New 'Church Committee' proposed to examine NSA spying abuses

http://blog.seattlepi.com/techchron/2014/03/17/new-church-committee-proposed-to-examine-nsa-spying-abuses/

New ‘Church Committee’ proposed to examine NSA spying abuses
Posted on March 17, 2014 | By seattlepi.com staff

Nearly 40 years ago after U.S. spy agencies were busted for inappropriately spying on Americans and “destabilizing” foreign governments, Congress got together and formed what became known as the Church Committee to investigate what went down. The committee — named for its chair, Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho — interviewed 800 people and held 271 hearings, cranking out tons of reports that gave a rare peek into the world of covert surveillance.

Now, amid new revelations of domestic spying, San Francisco’s Electronic Frontier Foundation along with members of the long-disbanded Church Committee are calling for the formation of a new Church Committee to look into the National Security Agency.

On Monday, the EFF is publishing a letter signed by 16 former counsel, advisers and others contributors to the original Church Committee who want “a thorough examination into the oversight system currently in place (including the House and Senate Intelligence Committees) and the intelligence communities actions (such as the CIA spying on Senate staff and the NSA spying on all Americans).”

“There is a crisis of public confidence,” say the ex-Churchers in their letter. ” Misleading statements by agency officials to Congress, the courts, and the public have undermined public trust in the intelligence community and in the capacity for the branches of government to provide meaningful oversight.

<snip>

[WillyT]

4. Today's Full Letter, To All Of Us, From Members Of The Church Committee (.pdf file)

X-posted from GD

Emphasis mine.............................

*******************************************************************

March 17, 2014

Dear Congress, Mr. President, and the American public,

In 1975, the public learned that the National Security Agency (NSA) had been collecting
and analyzing international telegrams of American citizens since the 1940s under secret
agreements with all the major telegram companies. Years later, the NSA instituted
another "Watch List" program to intercept the international communications of key
figures in the civil rights and anti-Vietnam War movements among other prominent
citizens. Innocent Americans were targeted by their government. These actions were only
uncovered—and stopped—because of a special Senate investigative committee known as
the United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with
Respect to Intelligence Activities, commonly known as the Church Committee.

We are former members and staff of the committee and write today as witnesses to
history and as citizens with decades of collective experience in Congress, the federal
courts, the executive branch, and the intelligence community. We write today to
encourage Congress to create a Church Committee for the 21st Century—a special
investigatory committee to undertake a thorough, and public, examination of current
intelligence community practices affecting the rights of Americans and to make specific
recommendations for future oversight and reform. Such a committee would work in good
faith with the president, hold public and private hearings, and be empowered to obtain
documents. Such congressional action is urgently needed to restore the faith of citizens in
the intelligence community and, indeed, in our federal government.

The actions uncovered by the Church Committee in the 1970s bear striking similarities to
the actions we've learned about over the past year. In the early 1970s, allegations of
impropriety and illegal activity concerning the intelligence community spurred Congress
to create committees to investigate those allegations. Our committee, chaired by Senator
Frank Church, was charged with investigating illegal and unethical conduct of the
intelligence community and with making legislative recommendations to govern the
intelligence community's conduct. The bipartisan committee's reports remain one of the
most searching reviews of intelligence agency practices in our nation's history.

Our findings were startling. Broadly speaking, we determined that sweeping domestic
surveillance programs, conducted under the guise of foreign intelligence collection, had
repeatedly undermined the privacy rights of US citizens. A number of reforms were
implemented as a result, including the creation of permanent intelligence oversight
committees in Congress and the passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Even though our work was over 30 years ago, our conclusions seem eerily prescient
today. For example, our final report noted:

We have seen a consistent pattern in which programs initiated with limited
goals, such as preventing criminal violence or identifying foreign spies,
were expanded to what witnesses characterized as "vacuum cleaners,"
sweeping in information about lawful activities of American citizens. The
tendency of intelligence activities to expand beyond their initial scope is a
theme, which runs through every aspect of our investigative findings.

The need for another thorough, independent, and public congressional investigation of
intelligence activity practices that affect the rights of Americans is apparent. There is a
crisis of public confidence. Misleading statements by agency officials to Congress, the
courts, and the public have undermined public trust in the intelligence community and in
the capacity for the branches of government to provide meaningful oversight.

The scale of domestic communications surveillance the NSA engages in today dwarfs the
programs revealed by the Church Committee. Indeed, 30 years ago, the NSA's
surveillance practices raised similar concerns as those today. For instance, Senator
Church explained:

In the case of the NSA, which is of particular concern to us today, the
rapid development of technology in this area of electronic surveillance has
seriously aggravated present ambiguities in the law. The broad sweep of
communications interception by NSA takes us far beyond the previous
Fourth Amendment controversies where particular individuals and specific
telephone lines were the target.

As former members and staff of the Church Committee we can authoritatively say: the
erosion of public trust currently facing our intelligence community is not novel, nor is its
solution. A Church Committee for the 21st Century—a special congressional
investigatory committee that undertakes a significant and public reexamination of
intelligence community practices that affect the rights of Americans and the laws
governing those actions—is urgently needed. Nothing less than the confidence of the
American public in our intelligence agencies and, indeed, the federal government, is at
stake.

Sincerely,

Counsel, advisers, and professional staff members of the Church Committee including
Chief Counsel Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr.; Loch Johnson; John T. Elliff; Burt Wides;
Jim Dick; Frederick Baron; Joseph Dennin; Peter Fenn; Anne Karalekas; Michael
Madigan; Elliot Maxwell; Gordon Rhea; Eric Richard; Athan Theoharis; Christopher
Pyle

Link (.pdf file): https://www.eff.org/files/2014/03/16/church_committee_-_march_17_2014_.pdf

Found here: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/03/ex-church-committee-staffers-call-congress-create-modern-day-church-committee

Related link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024679175

[bananas]

10. Thanks! Here's a link back to your GD thread where you've posted additional information

including a photo of one of Gottlieb's victims (horrifying stuff).
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024680577

[Judi Lynn]

24. Thank you. n/t

[RC]

6. Slowly, but surely, plans to correct the corruption that Snowden exposed, are being formed.

[Dem4ever27]

7. This new spying IS much worse.

Back in the Sixties and early Seventies activists in the anti-war/anti-imperialist movement expected to be spied upon, infiltrated etc. We were radicals. This was a political war. So of course the government and cops were going to spy on us.

But this new surveillance is something completely different in kind. They are spying on everyone. Routinely. Indiscriminately.

Much worse.

But the government has become so monolithic these days that I fear that any investigation would just be another cover-up, unlike the one by the original Church Committee.

[blackspade]

8. K&R

[zeemike]

9. Well this will be a telling moment in our history

to see what they do with this...if they ignore it we will know where they stand.

[Catherina]

13. THis year, the US and UK made Reporter's Without Borders "Enemies of the Internet" list

Enemies of the Internet 2014: entities at the heart of censorship and surveillance

...

Identifying government units or agencies rather than entire governments as Enemies of the Internet allows us to draw attention to the schizophrenic attitude towards online freedoms that prevails in in some countries. Three of the government bodies designated by Reporters Without Borders as Enemies of the Internet are located in democracies that have traditionally claimed to respect fundamental freedoms: the Centre for Development of Telematics in India, the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in the United Kingdom, and the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States.

The NSA and GCHQ have spied on the communications of millions of citizens including many journalists. They have knowingly introduced security flaws into devices and software used to transmit requests on the Internet. And they have hacked into the very heart of the Internet using programmes such as the NSA’s Quantam Insert and GCHQ’s Tempora. The Internet was a collective resource that the NSA and GCHQ turned into a weapon in the service of special interests, in the process flouting freedom of information, freedom of expression and the right to privacy.

The mass surveillance methods employed in these three countries, many of them exposed by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, are all the more intolerable because they will be used and indeed are already being used by authoritarians countries such as Iran, China, Turkmenistan, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain to justify their own violations of freedom of information. How will so-called democratic countries will able to press for the protection of journalists if they adopt the very practices they are criticizing authoritarian regimes for?

...

http://12mars.rsf.org/2014-en/enemies-of-the-internet-2014-entities-at-the-heart-of-censorship-and-surveillance/

[fascisthunter]

14. Wow...Kick

[think]

15. K&R /nt

[struggle4progress]

16. Good. Maybe we can stir Congress to action. They hold the purse-strings here.

Th whole thing is a bit of a sticky wicket: the current compromise involves all three branches of government, so we may need a new idea, more transparent and better protecting civil liberties, that the executive, judicial, and legislative branches can all agree upon

[awoke_in_2003]

19. Most of the politicians...

have skeletons in their closets, and the intelligence community has keys to those closets. Nothing will be done.

[struggle4progress]

20. Ideology and empty sloganeering won't help

[Hekate]

18. Snowden's a necessary hero after all. I still feel sorry for him & his probable fate. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

21. ,

,

[ucrdem]

23. Not hardly. Come on.

The Church committee revealed unspeakable, horrific crimes against humanity conducted routinely by the intel agencies involved. Snowden and company have revealed what exactly? A legal warrant authorizing collection of Verizon landline business metadata? This sounds like partisan hyperbole so let's see which "former members and staff" are actually making this inane comparison. The Church committee by the way was bipartisan, 6 Dems and 5 GOP, as follows:

Majority (Democratic):
Frank Church, Chairman, Idaho
Philip Hart, Michigan
Walter Mondale, Minnesota
Walter Huddleston, Kentucky
Robert Morgan, North Carolina
Gary Hart, Colorado

Minority (Republican):
John Tower, Vice Chairman, Texas
Howard Baker, Tennessee
Barry Goldwater, Arizona
Charles Mathias, Maryland
Richard Schweiker, Pennsylvania

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee

I don't see any committee members among the signatories of this letter, and here they are:

Sincerely, Counsel, advisers, and professional staff members of the Church Committee including

Chief Counsel Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr.;
Loch Johnson;
John T. Elliff;
Burt Wides;
Jim Dick;
Frederick Baron;
Joseph Dennin;
Peter Fenn;
Anne Karalekas;
Michael Madigan;
Elliot Maxwell;
Gordon Rhea;
Eric Richard;
Athan Theoharis;
Christopher Pyle

http://media.mcclatchydc.com/smedia/2014/03/17/18/00/vhBHu.So.91.pdf

No committee members. So I have to conclude that this is just another shabby partisan attack.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

26. The majority of those staffers are academics.

And not exactly republicans. Frankly I'm not sure you know what the term "partisan" means, because their research and work was the definition of non partisan.

[ucrdem]

31. No doubt. But that isn't how they identify themselves:

"We are former members and staff of the committee and write today as witnesses to history and as citizens with decades of collective experience in Congress, the federal courts, the executive branch, and the intelligence community."

But they aren't "former members," are they? Not one of them. So that's a fib, and the rest of the comparison is equally fallacious. Yes, they are partisans, and/or extremely gullible WaPo/CNN swallowers, and/or something worse.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

37. You've called their credibility into question. I'm wondering about yours.

[ucrdem]

38. I'm not claiming to be a "former member" of the Church Committee. nt

[DisgustipatedinCA]

39. No. You're trying to discredit the admnistrative staff of the Church Committee. Have the guts to

...say so.

Please understand that I'm constrained from replying to you the way I'd like to. If I did, not only would my post be locked, but I'd likely be banned. That's how I feel about you and those of your caliber. Clear?

[ucrdem]

40. Oh? By pointing out their own false claims?

Or maybe you had something else in mind? Don't hold back now.

[Titonwan]

25. K&R! (thanks, bananas)

Thank you, Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Barton Gellmon.
We wouldn't even be having this conversation without your revelations.
Although I want to see Dick Cheney in a docket, I'll settle for 'truth & reconciliation' to where their reputations are smashed and their policies abandoned.

[bvar22]

35. Agreed!

Snowden et al have performed a valuable and patriotic service to all Americans,
even those who refuse to believe it.

*Rampant Government Secrecy and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Persecution of Whistle Blowers and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Government surveillance of the citizenry and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Secret Laws and Democracy can not co-exist.

*Secret Courts and Democracy can not-co-exist.

*Our Democracy depends on an informed electorate.

You either believe in Democracy,
or you don't.
It IS that simple.

[DeSwiss]

27. We should definitely have another Church Committee......

...to insure nothing like this ever happens again, again.

- Having the horse inside the barn is overrated, I always say......

[center]''Yoohoo! Here I am! Bet ya can't catch me!''

[/center]

[Enthusiast]

28. I knew it.

[jsr]

32. Recommend

[cprise]

33. K&R

[The Stranger]

34. I wonder if the technology genie is out of the bottle.

I raised this issue before, and it goes like this.

Even assuming that Congress somehow would (and it would not) call hearings and take immediate, decisive, legal action, this would still happen again.

The game changer here is that this type of eavesdropping can take place anywhere, at any time, and it is undetectable. The only way we knew it was going on was because Edward Snowden allowed us to know.

If you stop it in one place, it will promptly, inevitably, start again somewhere else, in another agency, in a clandestine company, in some dark asset somewhere.

[bananas]

42. That's why everyone is moving to quantum encryption.

It's already done over fiber, and there will be quantum encryption satellites in a few years.
Eventually (decades from now), it will be standard in wi-fi and cellphones,
and Martians will use quantum encrypted laser communication with earth.

[The Stranger]

43. Where in the Hell is "quantum encryption"?

And how in the Hell do I get there?

[bananas]

44. Here's a few articles

Quantum communications system was used at Party Congress in Beijing
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1265416/quantum-communications-system-was-used-party-congress-beijing

World Cup security uses quantum encryption to thwart hackers
http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/world-cup-security-uses-quantum-encryption-thwart-hackers

China Plans Quantum Science Satellite in 2016
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014505402

Commercial Quantum Cryptography Satellites Coming
Canadian team wants to take the cheap microsatellite route to uncrackable global communications
http://spectrum.ieee.org/aerospace/satellites/commercial-quantum-cryptography-satellites-coming

World's First Quantum Cryptography Network Developed in China
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=228x51793

Battelle Installs First Commercial Quantum Key Distribution Protected Network in U.S.
http://www.battelle.org/media/press-releases/-first-commercial-quantum-key-distribution-protected-network-in-u.s

[The Stranger]

45. Like wow, Scooby.

I should've bought some stock.

[MinM]

41. NSA was wiretapping [Senator] Frank Church

RUSSELL TICE: We now know that NSA was wiretapping [Senator] Frank Church and another Senator. [That has been confirmed.]

And that got out by accident. All the information the NSA had back then – and probably many other senators and important people too, back in the 70s – they shredded and they destroyed all of that evidence. As much as they could find, they destroyed it all. By accident, something popped up 40 years later.

And, in fact, they were asked 40 years ago whether NSA had bugged Congress. And, of course, they lied. They lied through their teeth...

https://twitter.com/onekade/status/475999206562623488