[governance] (Tangential) ACLU Says Vast Surveillance Authority Must Have Public Oversight

[Riaz K Tayob]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 7, 2013
9:09 AM


CONTACT: ACL
U

Josh Bell, 212-549-2666, media at aclu.org
NSA Can Access Much of Americans’ Digital Lives
ACLU Says Vast Surveillance Authority Must Have Public Oversight

NEW YORK - June 7 - The government has the ability to secretly tap into 
a wide range of Americans’ online activities, according to reports in 
The Washington Post and The Guardian.

“The secrecy surrounding the government’s extraordinary surveillance 
powers has stymied our system of checks and balances,” said Laura 
Murphy, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Washington 
Legislative Office. “Congress must initiate an investigation to fully 
uncover the scope of these powers and their constraints, and it must 
enact reforms that protect Americans’ right to privacy and that enable 
effective public oversight of our government. There is a time and a 
place for government secrecy, but true democracy demands that the 
governed be informed of the rules of play so as to hold elected 
officials to account.”

The reported program appears to be based on the FISA Amendments Act, 
which authorizes surveillance of communications if one party is believed 
to be outside the U.S. The ACLU’s lawsuit challenging the law’s 
constitutionality was dismissed 5-4 by the Supreme Court in February on 
the grounds that the plaintiffs could not prove that they had been 
monitored.

“The stories published over the last two days make clear that the NSA – 
part of the military – now has direct access to every corner of 
Americans’ digital lives,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel 
Jaffer, who argued the case before the Supreme Court. “Unchecked 
government surveillance presents a grave threat to democratic freedoms. 
These revelations are a reminder that Congress has given the executive 
branch far too much power to invade individual privacy, that existing 
civil liberties safeguards are grossly inadequate, and that powers 
exercised entirely in secret, without public accountability of any kind, 
will certainly be abused.”

This press release is available at:
aclu.org/national-security/nsa-can-access-much-americans-digital-lives
###

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) conserves America's original 
civic values working in courts, legislatures and communities to defend 
and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every 
person in the United States by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.



-------------- next part --------------
____________________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list:
     governance at lists.igcaucus.org
To be removed from the list, visit:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/unsubscribing

For all other list information and functions, see:
     http://lists.igcaucus.org/info/governance
To edit your profile and to find the IGC's charter, see:
     http://www.igcaucus.org/

Translate this email: http://translate.google.com/translate_t