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
Section 215 Telephone Metadata Collection: The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Trashes Pretty Much Everyone
Wow. There’s really no other way to capture what the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board told the nation today in its 200+ page report on the NSA’s telephone metadata…
Privacy Board Debunks Purported Justification for NSA’s Phone-Records Dragnet
The just-released report of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board is rigorous and well-written, and it’s worth reading in its entirety. One section warranting particular…
PCLOB Releases Report, Recommends Government End §215 Program
Today, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) released its report (full text) on the NSA’s bulk telephony metadata collection program under Section 215…
Does “Espionage Porn” Make Us Stronger?
Although they have somewhat different focuses, one can find much in common in recent posts about the continuing byproducts of the Snowden disclosures (including last Friday’s…
Balancing the Public Interest in Disclosures
On Monday, Marc Theissen had an opinion piece in the Washington Post taking The New York Times to task for publishing the details of the NSA’s capabilities of using radio…
Jack Goldsmith on the “Front-Page Rule”
Highly recommended. As I explained earlier, I think this is a very important question going forward.
A “Right to be Forgotten”
Readers may be interested in a past decision of the Italian Court of Cassation adjudicating whether former convicted terrorists have a “right to be forgotten.” The decision…
UK Court Rules against Alleged Pakistani Drone Victim (Noor Khan)
The United Kingdom’s Court of Appeal has issued its judgment in Khan v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (full text). A Pakistani man brought a civil action…
Which Congressional NSA Reform Proposals Will the Obama Administration Now Support?
A lot of my reactions to yesterday’s surveillance reform speech by President Obama have already been captured by others, including David Cole in his thoughtful take over…
The Disconnect between Theory and Practice in Obama’s NSA Speech
I have a post on Foreign Policy arguing that there was a substantial disconnect between theory and practice in President Obama’s NSA speech yesterday. On the one hand, President…
Friday Evening Document Dump: DNI Declassifies Host of Additional FISC Orders
Late this afternoon, the DNI declassified two dozen FISC orders related to the collection and use of telephony metadata under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. In today’s…
Overview of Proposals to Reform Signals Intelligence Programs in Today’s Speech by the President
In today’s speech on Signals Intelligence Programs, President Obama outlined a number of “concrete and substantial reforms that [the] Administration intends to adopt…