Clapper declassifies more spying docs after Obama speech
Jan 18, 2014 14:57:23 GMT -5
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Post by xlter on Jan 18, 2014 14:57:23 GMT -5
Just hours after President Obama laid out changes on Friday to the nation's surveillance practices, his administration released more once-secret national security documents -- this time on the origins and approval of the controversial bulk telephone-data-collection program.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he released the documents in response to Obama's directive to declassify and make public as much information as possible about the government's sensitive surveillance program over the last six months. The documents can be found on the Office of the DNI's website.
Obama issued that order in response to an international firestorm over the sweeping nature of the nation's spying that kicked up last summer when former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden began disclosing details of the surveillance programs.
In his speech Friday, Obama said the NSA will need approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court each time it searches the trove of phone data. Under the current system, cleared NSA analysts have had ready access to the phone records in an online archive since 2006 when the court first approved the FBI's request to begin the bulk phone records collection.
One of the newly-released documents, dated Aug. 18, 2006, details how the FISC court approved a request from then-FBI Director Robert Mueller for “all call-detail records” or “telephony meta data.”
In the document approving the metadata collection program, the court said the data requested includes “comprehensive routing information, including but not limited to session identifying information (e.g., originating and terminating telephone number, communications device identifier, etc.), trunk identifier, telephone calling card numbers and time and duration of call.”
It also specifies that the data will not include “substantive content of any communication” or the name, address or financial information of a subscriber or customer.
The latest declassification and release of intelligence agency records brings the total of documents made public to 2,300 pages, including orders and opinions of the FISC and pleadings before it, documents the intelligence community provided to Congress, training slides and other internal memos describing the legal basis for the programs and how they operate.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said he released the documents in response to Obama's directive to declassify and make public as much information as possible about the government's sensitive surveillance program over the last six months. The documents can be found on the Office of the DNI's website.
Obama issued that order in response to an international firestorm over the sweeping nature of the nation's spying that kicked up last summer when former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden began disclosing details of the surveillance programs.
In his speech Friday, Obama said the NSA will need approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court each time it searches the trove of phone data. Under the current system, cleared NSA analysts have had ready access to the phone records in an online archive since 2006 when the court first approved the FBI's request to begin the bulk phone records collection.
One of the newly-released documents, dated Aug. 18, 2006, details how the FISC court approved a request from then-FBI Director Robert Mueller for “all call-detail records” or “telephony meta data.”
In the document approving the metadata collection program, the court said the data requested includes “comprehensive routing information, including but not limited to session identifying information (e.g., originating and terminating telephone number, communications device identifier, etc.), trunk identifier, telephone calling card numbers and time and duration of call.”
It also specifies that the data will not include “substantive content of any communication” or the name, address or financial information of a subscriber or customer.
The latest declassification and release of intelligence agency records brings the total of documents made public to 2,300 pages, including orders and opinions of the FISC and pleadings before it, documents the intelligence community provided to Congress, training slides and other internal memos describing the legal basis for the programs and how they operate.
