US intelligence chiefs have confirmed that the National Security Agency has used a "back door" in surveillance law to perform warrantless searches on Americans’ communications. ...TheGuardian
James Clapper's admission came in a letter to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden who chairs the Intelligence Committee. The searches had FISA's blessing. Wyden called FISA's okay "a backdoor loophole." Fellow Intelligence Committee member, Dianne Feinstein, defends the FISA and the NSA. Senator Wyden's persistence brought Clapper's open admission.
"Clapper’s reference to the lawfulness of such surveillance will rankle NSA critics," Natasha Leonard writes at Salon.
The shady FISA court law to enable such surveillance has been widely criticized as a dangerous legal loophole, secretly opened by the shady spy court to enable in the letter of the law an invasion of Americans’ privacy, which — while post hoc FISA court permitted in the age of post-9/11 national security paranoia — is a far cry from the spirit of constitutional protections. ...Leonard,Salon
