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Showing Original Post only (View all)Let's Be Clear, say Legal Experts, What NSA Is Doing Is 'Criminal' [View all]
Let's Be Clear, say Legal Experts, What NSA Is Doing Is 'Criminal'In plainly worded NYT op-ed, a retort to claims that NSA programs pass Constitutional muster
Published on Friday, June 28, 2013 by Common Dreams * by Jon Queally, staff writer
Despite a vast selection of elected US officials from both parties and an outsized portion of the US media who have accepted the assurances from the Obama administration and the National Security Agency that the domestic spying programs revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden are someone "legal" under US statute, two legal scholars penned a sharply worded New York Times op-ed on Friday demanding better attention must be paid to the reality of what the disclosures truly show and that the programs be described as what they are: "criminal."
Jennifer Stisa Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and law professor Christopher Jon Sprigman from the University of Virginia contend in their article, The Criminal NSA, that those supportive of government claims are simply "wrong" and that what we know about the programs is that they betray both "the letter and the spirit of federal law" designed to protect US citizens from government snooping of their private communications.
"No statute explicitly authorizes mass surveillance," they write.
"Through a series of legal contortions, the Obama administration has argued that Congress, since 9/11, intended to implicitly authorize mass surveillance. But this strategy mostly consists of wordplay, fear-mongering and a highly selective reading of the law. Americans deserve better from the White House and from President Obama, who has seemingly forgotten the constitutional law he once taught."
Looking specifically at the two most damning revelations reported on by the Guardian newspaper so farthe vast collection of cell phone "metadata" from nearly all US citizens and the Prism program, which allows for vast collection of internet communication data from some of the online platforms most used by Americansthe two legal experts say that in both cases the NSA has employed "shockingly flimsy" legal arguments to defend their practices.
TO READ REMAINDER OF ARTICLE: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/28-5
The NYTimes article referenced here can be seen at this link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/the-criminal-nsa.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=opinion&
I posted this NYTimes article yesterday, here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023117199
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Let's Be Clear, say Legal Experts, What NSA Is Doing Is 'Criminal' [View all]
99th_Monkey
Jun 2013
OP
Of course it isn't. Why else would a constitutional lawyer President classify it so extraordinarily?
Catherina
Jun 2013
#1
The FISA court that issued the warrant that Snowden leaked clearly thinks it is
arely staircase
Jun 2013
#43
I don't like secret courts either. But I can understand them for certain warrants.
arely staircase
Jun 2013
#60
Snowden's arrest warrant and the survelliance program are separate legal issues
Martin Eden
Jun 2013
#85
Even the Rubber Stamp known as FISA has ruled that the NSA has violated the constitution
think
Jun 2013
#101
If anyone is looking for a specific statute (and some appologists have demanded that others
AnotherMcIntosh
Jun 2013
#7
You've claimed to be an attorney. Could you cite the statutes broken? When you were an attorney,
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#11
But he provided the warrant. The one to Verizon. If he's got other info, he should release it.
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#31
Nonsense. Agent Mike needs a warrant (like the one produced by Mr. Snowden.) The problem is that
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#41
The FISA court is not entitled to authorize interception of ANY domestic calls.
wtmusic
Jun 2013
#42
You are conflating two different things--domestic calls to foreign entities and calls that
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#45
Wikipedia? Ok. And thank you for admitting that you were wrong about FISA interception. nt
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#47
It is not from Harvard Law. It is from the Kennedy School of Government and the Belfer Center and
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#68
Prove that the government intercepts and stores the communications of every American. nt
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#70
None of this is proof. You've made a fantastical claim--that the communications of all Americans
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#73
Apparently I have been paying better attention. You have made the fantastical claim that all
msanthrope
Jun 2013
#87
But Snowden said he "saw things"! He said stuff! How much clearer do you need it to be?
randome
Jun 2013
#88
Ugh, I think that the court is just going to have to resolve this as it looks like a mess.
cstanleytech
Jun 2013
#57
Well, are any of these legal experts on the Supreme Court or is this group some of the same
Thinkingabout
Jun 2013
#10
Problem is though that SCOTUS has not stepped in and said it was criminal.
cstanleytech
Jun 2013
#22
I am well aware that the courts usually take a hands off approach to such cases
cstanleytech
Jun 2013
#94
I agree. With 75 recs and so many posts, it's still not ANYwhere on the home page,
99th_Monkey
Jun 2013
#64
Things would be better if they were illegal, unfortunately, this is the law that got passed
Recursion
Jun 2013
#75
By the logic of some in this thread, legally, the Nazis were justified in doing what they did.
Democracyinkind
Jun 2013
#76
I think more could be found who say it was illegal, however, is populist media support
HereSince1628
Jun 2013
#82