More spying approved

[n2doc]

ODNI Lawyer Bob Litt Says There's No NSA Data Sharing With Law Enforcement... If You Don't Count The FBI, DEA, Etc.
from the a-fine-guest-post-full-of-classic-debunkables dept

Just when we thought some surveillance reforms might stick, the administration announced it was expanding law enforcement access to NSA data hauls. This prompted expressions of disbelief and dismay, along with a letter from Congressional representatives demanding the NSA cease this expanded information sharing immediately.

This backlash prompted Office of the Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt to make an unscheduled appearance at Just Security to explain how this was all a matter of everyone else getting everything wrong, rather than simply taking the administration at its word.

There has been a lot of speculation about the content of proposed procedures that are being drafted to authorize the sharing of unevaluated signals intelligence. While the procedures are not yet in final form, it would be helpful to clarify what they are and are not. In particular, these procedures are not about law enforcement, but about improving our intelligence capabilities.

As Litt explains it, everything about this is lawful and subject to a variety of policies and procedures.

These procedures will thus not authorize any additional collection of anyone’s communications, but will only provide a framework for the sharing of lawfully collected signals intelligence information between elements of the Intelligence Community. Critically, they will authorize sharing only with elements of the Intelligence Community, and only for authorized foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes; they will not authorize sharing for law enforcement purposes. They will require individual elements of the Intelligence Community to establish a justification for access to signals intelligence consistent with the foreign intelligence or counterintelligence mission of the element. And finally, they will require Intelligence Community elements, as a condition of receiving signals intelligence, to apply to signals intelligence information the kind of strong protections for privacy and civil liberties, and the kind of oversight, that the National Security Agency currently has.

So, this all sounds like it has nothing to do with law enforcement. Just intelligence "elements" from the community. Except that law enforcement and intelligence agencies are hardly separate entities. We already know the NSA is allowed to "tip" data to the FBI if it might be relevant to criminal investigations. There's no clear dividing line between intelligence and law enforcement -- not with law enforcement's steady encroachment into national security territory. When Litt says "only intelligence agencies," he's actually referring to several law enforcement agencies, as Marcy Wheeler points out.

more

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160401/08110934077/odni-lawyer-bob-litt-says-theres-no-nsa-data-sharing-with-law-enforcement-if-you-dont-count-fbi-dea-etc.shtml

[newfie11]

1. Big Brother is everywhere.