Another Obama Lie: The Secret FISA Court Admits it isn’t Capable of Oversight

This program, by the way, is fully overseen not just by Congress, but by the FISA Court — a court specially put together to evaluate classified programs to make sure that the executive branch, or government generally, is not abusing them, and that it’s being carried out consistent with the Constitution and rule of law.

– President Barack Obama on June 7, 2013 (transcript here)

The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government’s vast spying programs said that its ability to do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

– Washington Post article: Court: Ability to police U.S. spying program limited

I originally used the very top quote in my piece a month ago titled: Meet the Secret Supreme Court of the United States. In it, I pointed out how entirely ridiculous it is for Obama to tell us to rest assured there is oversight on the NSA spying as a result of the FISA Court, a secret court with secret “classified” rulings. Well now we find out that it is even more ridiculous than that, as the leader of the secret court itself admits it is incapable of doing its job. So is Barack Obama just completely clueless, or is he a pathological liar? You know what I think. From the Washington Post:

The leader of the secret court that is supposed to provide critical oversight of the government’s vast spying programs said that its ability to do so is limited and that it must trust the government to report when it improperly spies on Americans.

“The FISC is forced to rely upon the accuracy of the information that is provided to the Court,” its chief, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton, said in a written statement to The Washington Post. “The FISC does not have the capacity to investigate issues of noncompliance, and in that respect the FISC is in the same position as any other court when it comes to enforcing [government] compliance with its orders.”

The court’s description of its practical limitations contrasts with repeated assurances from the Obama administration and intelligence agency leaders that the court provides central checks and balances on the government’s broad spying efforts. They have said that Americans should feel comfortable that the secret intelligence court provides robust oversight of government surveillance and protects their privacy from rogue intrusions.

In January 2008, the NSA appeared to have mistakenly collected data on numerous phone calls from the Washington area code 202, thinking they were foreign phone calls from Egypt, whose country code is 20. According to a 2013 “quality assurance” review of the incident, a communications switch misread the coding of the calls and presumed they were international. The NSA has broad authority that is not subject to the FISA court to collect and monitor foreign communications under certain circumstances.

The description of the 2008 problem suggests that the inadvertent collection of U.S. phone calls was not reported to the FISA court.

Under FISA rules, the government is required to immediately notify the court if it believes it has violated any of its orders on surveillance.

Banana Republic.

Full article here.

In Liberty,
Mike

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