Chris Sprigman and I have a new piece up at The Daily Beast about NSA illegal mass surveillance. This time we're looking at the role of the secret FISA Court, which is what the Administration always points to when it tries to assure Americans that there are no dangers from the emerging NSA Panopticon. We trace how following 9/11 the FISA Court's role changed massively. What started out as a secret court that assessed government requests to spy on specific people, groups, or facilities turned into a secret kangaroo court that approved mass surveillance programs that sweep up the communications of millions of Americans, without any reason to suspect that 99.9% of them are connected in any way to any wrongdoing.
The FISA Court doesn't protect us. It's a part of the problem. It must go.
Photo credit: François Proulx