The Hidden Classified Briefing Most of Congress Missed

English: Congressman Justin Amash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Garance Franke-Ruta | The Atlantic | Reader Supported News | September 22, 2013

The wild story of the short-notice, three-hour viewing period for a national-security document on the August Friday that summer recess started.

Inside the House of Representatives, there is an internal communications system designed specifically for members and their staffs. It’s a legacy product from when members used to send each other physical interoffice mail, addressed “Dear Colleague.”

The “e-Dear Colleague” system has existed since 2008 as an intranet database of messages that can be searched by topic, and as a kind of listserv on official doings for the 435 representatives’ offices. With so many people on the opt-in subscription service, the volume of email is high, which is why when there’s an important intelligence briefing for members of Congress, staffers are formally notified directly by their party leaders in the House.

Except in August, according to Rep. Justin Amash, when something extraordinary happened. An important national-security document the libertarian Michigan Republican and some of his colleagues on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence had been trying to see for some time was made available to all members on less than 24 hours’ notice by the Intelligence Committee chair, with a viewing scheduled for when they were supposed to be voting, and on the very day Congress was set to begin its five-week summer recess. And the email went out through the “e-Dear Colleague” system, where it was buried.

Read more

Intelligence Committee Withheld Key File Before Critical NSA Vote, Amash Claims

English: Congressman Justin Amash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Spencer Ackerman | Guardian UK | Reader Supported News | August 13, 2013

Republican who led Congress revolt against surveillance insists members did not see document before 2011 Patriot Act vote

A leader of the US congressional insurrection against the National Security Agency’s bulk surveillance programs has accused his colleagues of withholding a key document from the House of Representatives before a critical surveillance vote.

Justin Amash, the Michigan Republican whose effort to defund the NSA’s mass phone-records collection exposed deep congressional discomfort with domestic spying, said the House intelligence committee never allowed legislators outside the panel to see a 2011 document that described the surveillance in vague terms.

The document, a classified summary of the bulk phone records collection effort justified under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, was declassified by the Obama administration in late July.

The Justice Department and intelligence agencies prepared it for Congress before a 2011 vote to reauthorize the Patriot Act, and left it for the intelligence committees in Congress to make the document available to their colleagues.

Read more

New Congressional Coalition Emerges Against NSA Surveillance

English: Congressman Justin Amash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Ryan Devereaux | Rolling Stone | Reader Supported News | July 28, 2013

Amash-Conyers amendment brings together Democrats and Republicans against government overreach

Something unusual happened on the floor of the House of Representatives this week: Lawmakers divided themselves, not along party lines, but on the question of whether a top-secret surveillance program that has scooped up information from every telephone call in the country over the last seven years should continue. An amendment to the annual defense spending bill – co-sponsored by young, libertarian Michigan Republican Justin Amash and veteran, liberal Michigan Democrat John Conyers – contended that it should not. It failed on Wednesday night by just 12 votes: 205 in favor, 217 against.

The Amash-Conyers amendment set out to end the NSA’s “blanket” and “indiscriminate” collection of Americans’ telephone records and limit collection of such information to the subjects of authorized national security investigations. It was the first legislation to directly challenge the NSA’s bulk surveillance of American phone records since former NSA contractor Edward Snowden turned over a trove of secret documents about the program to the media less than two months ago.

The heated debate surrounding the amendment resulted in a number of surprising coalitions. On one side stood President Obama and his inner circle of national security and intelligence advisors, plus the GOP leadership and veteran fear-mongers like Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) – all of whom strongly support the NSA surveillance program. The White House so badly wanted the amendment to fail that it put out a press release on Monday night explicitly saying so and dispatched NSA officials to pressure House members to vote against it. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and her deputy Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland) both voted against the amendment, joining with the likes of Bachmann, who predictably invoked the threat of “Islamic jihad” from the floor, and Mike Rogers (R-Michigan), who suggested that Amash was just playing “a game” in pursuit of Facebook likes.

Read more

House Defeats Effort to Rein In N.S.A. Data Gathering

The seal of the U.S. National Security Agency. The first use was in September 1966, replacing an older seal which was used briefly. For more information, see here and here. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

JONATHAN WEISMAN | New York Times | July 24, 2013

WASHINGTON — A deeply divided House defeated legislation Wednesday that would have blocked the National Security Agency from collecting vast amounts of phone records, handing the Obama administration a hard-fought victory in the first Congressional showdown over the N.S.A.’s surveillance activities since Edward J. Snowden’s security breaches last month.

The 205-to-217 vote was far closer than expected and came after a brief but impassioned debate over citizens’ right to privacy and the steps the government must take to protect national security. It was a rare instance in which a classified intelligence program was openly discussed on the House floor, and disagreements over the  program led to some unusual coalitions.

Conservative Republicans leery of what they see as Obama administration abuses of power teamed up with liberal Democrats long opposed to intrusive intelligence programs. The Obama administration made common cause with the House Republican leadership to try to block it.

Read more

White House Worried Congress Will Limit NSA Spy Powers

English: Congressman Justin Amash (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

David Kravets | Wired Magazine | Reader Supported News | July 24, 2013

The House is expected to vote later this week on an amendment to a roughly $600 billion defense spending package that would repeal authorization for the National Security Agency’s dragnet collection of phone call metadata in the United States.

As part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2014, the lower chamber will vote on a measure proposed by Rep. Justin Amash (R-Michigan) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Michigan). In essence, the amendment to the massive Pentagon spending package would end authority for the once-secret spy program the White House insists is necessary to protect national security.

The amendment is one of about 100 that lawmakers are to consider on topics ranging from Egypt to Syria. The Amash-Conyers amendment could be voted on as early as Wednesday.

Read more

James Clapper Should Be Fired—And Prosecuted

David Sirota | Salon | AlterNet | June 12, 2013

When introducing James Clapper as his Director of National Intelligence in 2010, President Obama specifically  justified the appointment by saying Clapper is someone who “understands the importance of working with our partners in Congress (and) not merely to appear when summoned, but to keep Congress informed.” At the time, it seemed like a wholly uncontroversial statement – it was simply a president making a sacrosanct promise to keep the legislative branch informed, with the insinuation that previous administrations hadn’t.

Three years later, of course, James Clapper is now the embodiment of perjury before Congress. Indeed, when you couple Edward Snowden’s disclosures with the video of Clapper’s Senate testimony denying that the National Security Administration collects “any type of data on millions (of Americans),” Clapper has become American history’s most explicit and verifiable example of an executive branch deliberately lying to the legislative branch that is supposed to be overseeing it.

Incredibly (or, alas, maybe not so incredibly anymore) despite the president’s original explicit promises about Clapper, transparency and Congress, the White House is nonetheless responding to this humiliating situation by  proudly expressing its full support for Clapper. Meanwhile, as of today’s announcement by  U.S. Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), the demands for Clapper’s resignation are finally being aired on Capitol Hill.

Read more