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For secretive surveillance court, rare scrutiny in wake of NSA leaks
Wash ComPost ^ | June 22, 2013 | Peter Wallsten, Carol D. Leonnig and Alice Crites

Posted on 06/23/2013 1:59:33 PM PDT by dirtboy

Wedged into a secure, windowless basement room deep below the Capitol Visitors Center, U.S. District Court Judge John Bates appeared before dozens of senators earlier this month for a highly unusual, top-secret briefing.

The lawmakers pressed Bates, according to people familiar with the session, to discuss the inner workings of the United States’ clandestine terrorism surveillance tribunal, which Bates oversaw from 2006 until earlier this year.

FISA court papers show NSA warrantless surveillance rules Classified documents spell out procedures for targeting foreigners and minimizing the collection of data from U.S. persons.

Bates had rarely spoken of his sensitive work. He reluctantly agreed to appear at the behest of Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who arranged the session after new disclosures that the court had granted the government broad access to millions of Americans’ telephone and Internet communications.

The two-hour meeting on June 13 featuring Bates and two top spy agency officials — prompted by reports days earlier by The Washington Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper about the vast reach of the programs — reflects a new and uncomfortable reality for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and its previously obscure members. Within the past month, lawmakers have begun to ask who the court’s judges are, what they do, why they have almost never declined a government surveillance request and why their work is so secretive.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bates; benghazi; fastandfurious; feinstein; fisacourt; impeachnow; irs; judges; nsa; privacy

1 posted on 06/23/2013 1:59:33 PM PDT by dirtboy
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To: dirtboy

Do we have any other star chamber courts like this in America?


2 posted on 06/23/2013 2:03:43 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: dirtboy
Bates, a former prosecutor and Bush-appointed judge in the D.C. district court, rebuffed several questions about the court’s orders, telling senators they should address their questions to executive branch officials, according to people briefed on the session. He stressed that the government’s collection and surveillance programs were classified as top-secret by the Obama administration, not by the judiciary.

Useless "oversight." Defund it and be done with it.

3 posted on 06/23/2013 2:17:24 PM PDT by Timber Rattler (Just say NO! to RINOS and the GOP-E)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
The FISA court idea was put forward by the Church Commission. If you want to read about it don't read Wiki ~ they've already rewritten their pieces referencing that court so that Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton bear no responsibility for it.

The FISA court has a single purpose ~ to issue warrents upon presentment of probable cause that there's a foreign agent or sabateur mucking up the works INSIDE THE USA. I don't think there was any secret that we tap the world ~ as do the other guys eh! Our courts have no extraterritorial authority.

The question is whether or not they've actually limited themselves and NSA operations to that condition, or have they gone beyond what we were told was their authority.

Your typical European Star Chamber actually condemns people and draws and quarters them on the plaza just below their window. We don't do that.

4 posted on 06/23/2013 2:21:33 PM PDT by muawiyah (Get your RED (state) Arm Bands ~)
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To: muawiyah

Not yet.

The first step is labeling the citizenry as terrorists. The rest follows logically.


5 posted on 06/23/2013 2:29:00 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
HIstorically that sort of thing has happened AFTER the population were disarmed. Our current president has been great for sales ~ something like 68 million more firearms in the hands of private individuals since he came to office ~ that's on top of well over 100 million firearms before he showed up.

BTW, Obama is too stupid to plan any of this, but there are doctrinaire commies in his entourage who have plans in mind to repeat history as they see it.

HISTORY STOPS HERE due to the Second Amendment.

6 posted on 06/23/2013 2:37:14 PM PDT by muawiyah (Get your RED (state) Arm Bands ~)
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To: muawiyah

Like after Katrina???


7 posted on 06/23/2013 2:42:36 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
like after Katrina there were some local cops got in a lot of trouble around New Orleans. One guy even stole a bunch of cadillacs.

But there was no general disarmament effort made ~ that would have been madness!

8 posted on 06/23/2013 2:52:56 PM PDT by muawiyah (Get your RED (state) Arm Bands ~)
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To: Jack Hydrazine

BTW, it was Janet Napolitano who decided we are all terrorists and started spouting nonsense. We’ve already decided she’s an overweight woman with an abusive personality who should not be allowed near children or small animals. That’s now her public reputation.


9 posted on 06/23/2013 2:56:30 PM PDT by muawiyah (Get your RED (state) Arm Bands ~)
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To: muawiyah

So that post-Katrina disarmament was just an illusion?


10 posted on 06/23/2013 3:02:16 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: Jack Hydrazine
There was no post katrina disarmament. this country has been on the biggest gun bying binge in its history over the last 20 years ~ what you saw in katrina was a fictitous news media story about cannibalism, rape gangs, dead bodies bobbing about, etc.

The Coast Guard, Navy Reserve and National Guard were doing a tremendous job rescuing people ~

~ our news media do not like America or Americans. They'll take a disaster and make it worse.

11 posted on 06/23/2013 3:09:13 PM PDT by muawiyah (Get your RED (state) Arm Bands ~)
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To: muawiyah

And the court fight by the NRA to get those confiscated firearms back in the hands of the law-abiding owners was just a bunch of made up rubbish?


12 posted on 06/23/2013 3:13:09 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (IÂ’m not a Republican, I'm a Conservative! Pubbies haven't been conservative since before T.R.)
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To: muawiyah
There was no post katrina disarmament.

Your depravity apparently knows no limits.

N.O. Police Returning Guns Confiscated Post-Katrina

Why would there be a story about the NOLA police returning confiscated guns if they were never confiscated in the first place.

our news media do not like America or Americans. They'll take a disaster and make it worse.

You mean the same media that painted Obama as a savior during and after Sandy when clearly the opposite was the case?

You truly are a jackass.

13 posted on 06/23/2013 5:40:14 PM PDT by dirtboy
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