Intelligence & Surveillance
Just Security’s expert authors provide legal and policy analysis of intelligence and surveillance activities, focusing on their impact on national security and on civil liberties and privacy rights, and their oversight by Congress and the courts.
1,807 Articles
“The NSA Doesn’t Spy On Americans”
Over at Lawfare, Ben Wittes is making excuses for the intelligence officials who’ve been saying the NSA doesn’t spy on Americans. Ben acknowledges the statement is false—“not…
“Associated Forces” Has No Legal or Strategic Meaning
Today was national security day in Congress, with three simultaneous hearings on the terrorist threat and how best to fight it. I watched the House Armed Services Committee hearing…
Can Congress Protect Digital Privacy from NSA Spying?
[Editor’s Note: The House Judiciary Committee hearing can be viewed live on C-SPAN.org] Today, the House Judiciary Committee will conduct a hearing on recommendations to…
The Muhtorov Constitutional Challenge to Section 702
Jamshid Muhtorov is a lawful permanent U.S. resident and a criminal defendant in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, charged with providing material support to…
Quantum Mechanics, Big Data and the Right of Privacy
If it has done nothing else, the exposure of the NSA metadata collection program has caused both legal commentators and courts to rethink the doctrines that have long governed…
Reforming 702: Does NSA Minimize Cloud Files?
Yesterday, I wrote generally about the problems with section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (FAA). Today I want to focus on categories of information—including content—that…
Reforming The Section 702 Dragnet (Part 1)
The consensus is clear that spying on innocent Americans section 215 of the Patriot Act is flatly illegal. The Center for Democracy and Technology said it, Christopher Sprigman…
GCHQ Surveillance Likely Illegal, Says Leading UK Barrister
In yesterday morning’s News Roundup, I noted that a leading lawyer in the UK has submitted legal advice to a parliamentary group concluding that mass surveillance programs conducted…
Don’t Close Your Eyes to Surveillance Dangers: A Response to Richard Epstein
Richard Epstein’s office at the Hoover Institution is less than a mile from mine at Stanford Law School, and I’ve had the pleasure to hear Richard speak to the faculty on a…
Security, Uncertainty, and the National Security Administration: The President Should Defend, Not Revise, Current NSA Procedures
The question of national security and its relationship to individual privacy has always provoked a challenge for persons with strong libertarian inclinations, who rightly embrace…
Lost in the Bulk Collection Debate — Fifth Circuit Affirms Life Sentence of Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari
With most (if not all) the focus these days on bulk collection under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act, Section 702 of FISA, or E.O. 12333, it is easy to forget that foreign intelligence…
A $15 Million Dollar Torture Partnership
It has been common knowledge for a while that Poland hosted a secret CIA prison where Abd al Rahim al Nashiri and other prisoners now held in Guantánamo were detained and tortured. …