NUMBER OF AMERICANS CAUGHT IN NSA SURVEILLANCE
WEB WILL BE
DISCLOSED
BY REUTERS ON
12/17/16 AT 12:46 PM
Reform
Government Surveillance: One Letter To Rule Them All
The U.S. intelligence community will soon disclose an
estimate of the number of Americans whose electronic communications have been
caught in the crosshairs of online surveillance programs intended for
foreigners, U.S. lawmakers said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.
The estimate, requested by members of the U.S. House of
Representatives Judiciary Committee, is expected to be made public as early as
next month, the letter said.
Its disclosure would come as Congress is expected to begin
debate in the coming months over whether to reauthorize or reform the so-called
surveillance authority, known as Section 702, a provision that was added to the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 2008.
"The timely production of this information is incredibly
important to informed debate on Section 702 in the next Congress—and, without
it, even those of us inclined to support reauthorization would have
reason for concern," said the letter signed by 11 lawmakers, all members
of the House Judiciary Committee.
An
undated aerial handout photo shows the National Security Agency headquarters
building in Fort Meade, Maryland.REUTERS
The letter was sent on Friday to National Intelligence Director
James Clapper. It said his office and National Security Agency (NSA) officials
had already briefed congressional staff about how the intelligence community
intends to comply with the disclosure request. Clapper's office confirmed the
letter had been received but declined further comment.
The lawmakers termed their letter an effort to "memorialize
our understanding" of the intelligence community's plan to provide an
estimate in real numbers, not percentages, as soon as January that can be
shared with the public.
The government has long held that calculating the number of
Americans subject to Section 702 surveillance might be technically impossible
and would require privacy intrusions exceeding those raised by the actual
surveillance programs, which were originally intended to counter foreign
espionage.
Intelligence officials have said that online data about
Americans is "incidentally" collected under Section 702, due to a
range of technical and practical reasons. Critics have assailed such collection
as back-door surveillance of Americans without a warrant.
Section 702 will expire on Dec. 31, 2017, absent congressional
action. It enables two internet surveillance programs called Prism and Upstream
that were revealed in a series of leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden
more than three years ago.
Prism gathers messaging data from Alphabet Inc's Google,
Facebook , Microsoft, Apple and other major tech companies that is sent to and
from a foreign target under surveillance. Upstream allows the NSA to copy web
traffic flowing along the internet backbone located inside the United States
and search that data for certain terms associated with a target.
Clapper, who is stepping down next month, suggested in April
that providing an estimate of Americans surveilled under Section 702, a figure
some have said could tally in the millions, might be possible, while defending
the law as "a prolific producer of critical intelligence."
Republicans James Sensenbrenner, Darrell Issa, Ted Poe and Jason
Chaffetz signed the letter, in addition to Democrats John Conyers, Jerrold
Nadler, Zoe Lofgren, Hank Johnson, Ted Deutch, Suzan DelBene and David
Cicilline.
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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