Three NSA Whistleblowers Back EFF's Lawsuit Over Government's Massive Spying Program
EFF Asks Court to Reject Stale State Secret Arguments So Case Can Proceed
San Francisco - Three whistleblowers – all former employees of the National Security Agency (NSA) – have come forward to give evidence in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's (EFF's) lawsuit against the government's illegal mass surveillance program, Jewel v. NSA.
In a motion filed today, the three former intelligence analysts confirm that the NSA has, or is in the process of obtaining, the capability to seize and store most electronic communications passing through its U.S. intercept centers, such as the "secret room" at the AT&T facility in San Francisco first disclosed by retired AT&T technician Mark Klein in early 2006.
"For years, government lawyers have been arguing that our case is too secret for the courts to consider, despite the mounting confirmation of widespread mass illegal surveillance of ordinary people," said EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "Now we have three former NSA officials confirming the basic facts. Neither the Constitution nor federal law allow the government to collect massive amounts of communications and data of innocent Americans and fish around in it in case it might find something interesting. This kind of power is too easily abused. We're extremely pleased that more whistleblowers have come forward to help end this massive spying program."
The three former NSA employees with declarations in EFF's brief are William E. Binney, Thomas A. Drake, and J. Kirk Wiebe. All were targets of a federal investigation into leaks to the New York Times that sparked the initial news coverage about the warrantless wiretapping program. Binney and Wiebe were formally cleared of charges and Drake had those charges against him dropped.
Jewel v. NSA is back in district court after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated it in late 2011. In the motion for partial summary judgment filed today, EFF asked the court to reject the stale state secrets arguments that the government has been using in its attempts to sidetrack this important litigation and instead apply the processes in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that require the court to determine whether electronic surveillance was conducted legally.
"The NSA warrantless surveillance programs have been the subject of widespread reporting and debate for more than six years now. They are just not a secret," said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Lee Tien. "Yet the government keeps making the same 'state secrets' claims again and again. It's time for Americans to have their day in court and for a judge to rule on the legality of this massive surveillance."
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/three-nsa-whistleblowers-back-effs-lawsuit-over-governments-massive-spying-program
It's for the terriss and everything, the ones who put Rabbi Zakheim's 7-series compressor on Murray Street, so these intercept centers are a prime candidate to be shut down by Fundamental Constabulary. (The stand-up went nowhere, so I gotta undergo job retraining. It was either typewriter repair or law enforcement.)
More later. There's gonna be a whooooole big legal structure that you're going to make for me, the boundaries of which will be guarded by my little boyfriend, Malcolm --Malcolm the Troublesome Compressor. And what we've learned so far is that no one ever, ever, ever looks at Malcolm crosseyed, much less do they dare to touch him or to enter the tunnels within the legal system that he stands guard over.
Do you see the magical possibilities in jamming the legal system into inaction? Do you see what's coming down the pike? You and I, my lovelies, are going to make all sorts of wondrous law enforcement operations perfectly legal!
We're going to be digging tunnels throughout the United States legal system. It's something that's never been done before --though I have it on good authority that there's a first time for everything.
Do you remember marveling at the usefulness of your first Palm Pilot, or your first cell phone, or TiVo?
If you have not cocked your head and smiled to yourself at the sheer usefulness of that compressor, then you have not fully comprehended the implications of it.
That compressor is the most useful thing anyone has run across in a hundred years. It is a jurisdiction killer. Therefore, the jurisdiction in question will yield to its wielder's every demand rather than die.
You and I, Wolfteam, have the power to completely reshape the United States Government. (Shhhh! Keep it to yourself! Public defenders and other ignoramuses will think you have delusions of grandeur for believing that one person can make the world a better place! And how did you ever make it through law school without blowing your brains out, having to suffer such sad people?)
