National Security Agency (NSA)
295 Articles

Chris Soghoian Q+A: The Next Chapter of Surveillance Reform
I recently conducted a wide-ranging Q+A with the ACLU’s chief technologist, Chris Soghoian, on a range of topics, from the “fraudulent” nature of the recent debate over Section…

The Symbolic Sunset & What’s Next for the USA Freedom Act
Because the gods of traffic metrics are stern taskmasters, you’ll likely read a lot of headlines today about “the expiration of the Patriot Act,” possibly paired…

Mootness and the 215 Challenges
As a nerdy follow-up to the stories about last night’s expiration of section 215, I thought I’d say a quick word about how that denouement will affect the ongoing litigation…

Chris Soghoian on What’s Wrong With the Debate on Section 215
It’s great that the sunset of Section 215 has reignited the debate about mass surveillance in the United States, but all the focus on this one provision, more specifically on…

The Patriot Act’s Sunset Recess
The Senate entered its Memorial Day recess without passing either a Patriot Act extension or a reform bill along the lines of the Freedom Act. Amid intense congressional wrangling…

Scaremongering about the Patriot Act Sunset
The Capitol Dome. Image Credit: Architect of the Capitol. In a last-ditch effort to scare lawmakers into preserving unpopular and much-abused surveillance authorities, the Senate…

Sen. Paul’s Great Surveillance ‘Filibuster’ and What to Expect Next
Senator Rand Paul, joined by Senator Wyden and other surveillance reform advocates, as well as five members of the House of Representatives, spent much of last night on the Senate…

German Cooperation With NSA Spies Broader Than We Knew
Late last month Der Spiegel reported that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), Germany’s foreign intelligence agency, participated in and directly supported the National Security…

ACLU v. Clapper Will End the Telephone Dragnet
Last week’s dramatic Second Circuit decision in ACLU v. Clapper, invalidated the alleged legal basis for the NSA domestic phone call dragnet, Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act,…

What ACLU v. Clapper Means
Many others have already weighed in about the significance of last week’s ruling in ACLU v. Clapper. Here are my own quick thoughts. As regular readers of this blog already know,…

How the Second Circuit’s Decision in Clapper Informs the Section 215 Discussion
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…

Candidates, Senators, and Surveillance: The Stakes
In the wake of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruling that the Patriot Act’s Section 215 metadata program is illegal, former Senator (and now presidential candidate)…