They So Are NOT a Rubber Stamp

The federal surveillance court that has approved all but a fraction of the NSA's intelligence requests nonetheless rejected a petition by the government to retain phone records for longer than five years, as is currently allowed.

The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (also known as the FISA Court) was established in 1978 as a gatekeeper that would approve or deny surveillance warrants against suspect foreign enemies living inside the United States. Since that date, the court has denied 11 of the nearly 34,000 surveillance requests by the government.

  RT

See? Eleven. It’s not a rubber stamp court.

I’d like to know what those eleven requests were.

The judge concluded that any reason to keep the telephone records is outweighed by the damage that such a decision would do to privacy.

Because immediate privacy is meaningless, but after five years – sacrosanct.

Looks like the Snowden Effect has pressured FISA to come up with something that looks like they’re on the ball.

Speaking of Snowden, upon request, he gave written testimony to the EU:

Recently, governments have shifted their talking points from claiming they only use mass surveillance for "national security" purposes to the more nebulous "valid foreign intelligence purposes." I suggest this committee consider that this rhetorical shift is a tacit acknowledgment by governments that they recognize they have crossed beyond the boundaries of justifiable activities.

[...]

I do seek EU asylum, but I have yet to receive a positive response to the requests I sent to various EU member states. Parliamentarians in the national governments have told me that the US, and I quote, "will not allow" EU partners to offer political asylum to me, which is why the previous resolution on asylum ran into such mysterious opposition. I would welcome any offer of safe passage or permanent asylum, but I recognize that would require an act of extraordinary political courage.

  

http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1061127-vjhvekoen1ww.html#document/p1 (provided via TechDirt)