Surveillance court renews NSA phone records program –FISA court approves metadata collection program for 36th time in seven years
03 Jan 2014 A U.S. surveillance court has renewed its approval of a National Security Agency program that collects U.S. residents’ telephone records in bulk. The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday again approved the NSA phone records program amid multiple lawsuits challenging the legality of the program and more than 20 bills in Congress that seek to alter the program. The U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence asked the FISC for a renewal of the telephone records metadata collection program, the ODNI said in a statement Friday.
U.S. court allows more phone snooping
03 Jan 2014 The secretive U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Friday renewed the authority of U.S. intelligence agencies to collect data on millions of Americans’ telephone calls in a program that has set off a legal battle over privacy rights. The court allowed the intelligence community to collect metadata from phone companies, the Office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a news release. The release offered almost no details about the ruling, but a U.S. official said the authority was renewed for three months, and that it applied to the entire metadata collection program.
Appeals court: OK to keep surveillance opinion secret
03 Jan 2014 The Justice [sic] Department is not obligated to release a legal opinion it prepared regarding the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s surveillance authorities, even though an FBI official referred to the memo while defending the agency at a public Congressional hearing, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit strengthens the almost unlimited discretion the Justice Department enjoys in deciding which Office of Legal Counsel opinions to make public and which to keep under wraps. Judge Harry Edwards, writing for Judges Sri Srinivasan and David Sentelle, found that the OLC opinion was not binding on the FBI–even though it is virtually unheard of for an executive branch agency to defy an OLC opinion, especially an agency also part of the Justice Department.