Dear
Senator Feinstein,
I am in disbelief at the letter you sent via email
last night regarding my concerns about the NSA. Do you really believe “the
government cannot listen to an American’s telephone calls or read their emails
without a court warrant issued upon a showing of probable cause?” That the information
NSA collects is minimal, “the kind you might find on a telephone bill?” Do you
really believe the FISA court is an effective oversight? A rubber-stamp court
that turned down only 11 of 34,000 requests over the past 20 years? A court
that operates in secret and whose findings are secret is neither a court to be
trusted nor a court found in any true democracy. And do you really believe that
NSA programs have been “effective in identifying terrorists, their activities,
and those associated with terrorist plots…to prevent numerous terrorist attacks?”
As examples, you trot out the same two that have been shown over and over again
to have been foiled not by NSA programs but by other agencies, other means and
indeed, other countries—the Zazi plot (to bomb the NYC subway) and Headley (Mumbai
and a Danish newspaper) were both tips from British intelligence. You quote Alexander’s
discredited testimony that NSA programs helped prevent “over 50 potential
terrorist events,” the 50 reduced to 13, then 2, then “maybe one” in testimony
last week to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Your letter also states that the
laws which enabled and reauthorized this surveillance were passed by
overwhelming margins but those laws have been breached twisted, distorted and
ignored by NSA. As the lead editorial in today’s NYT says, “Apparently no
espionage tool that Congress gives the NSA is big enough or intrusive enough to
satisfy the agency’s inexhaustible appetite for delving into the communications
of Americans… Data collection on this scale goes far beyond what Congress
authorized and it clearly shreds a common-sense understanding of the Fourth
Amendment.” The author of the Patriot Act, Rep. Sensenbrenner (R-WI) voted for the Amash Amendment to cut funding
for the NSA saying the Patriot Act was never intended to authorize what they’re
doing. When agencies and the courts act in secret without effective oversight, then
Congress has failed; failed America, failed its citizens, and failed democracy.
That’s the state we’re in now, Senator. Your assurances are a fiction but I
fear you believe them, that you are clueless. With people like you in Congress,
God help us one and all.
cc: Representative Nancy Pelosi
Senator Barbara Boxer
President Barack Obama
Thu, Aug 8, 2013 7:54 PM
From:
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"senator@feinstein.senate.gov" <senator@feinstein.senate.gov>
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To:
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ryoder
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Dear Mr. Yoder:
I received your communication indicating your
concerns about the two National Security Agency programs that have been in
the news recently. I appreciate that you took the time to write on this
important issue and welcome the opportunity to respond.
First, I understand your concerns and want to
point out that by law, the government cannot listen to an American's
telephone calls or read their emails without a court warrant issued upon a
showing of probable cause. The programs that were recently disclosed have to
do with information about phone calls – the kind of information that you
might find on a telephone bill – in one case, and the internet communications
(such as email) of non-Americans outside the United States in the other case.
Both programs are subject to checks and balances, and oversight by the
Executive Branch, the Congress, and the Judiciary.
As Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
I can tell you that I believe the oversight we have conducted is strong and
effective and I am doing my level best to get more information declassified. Please
know that it is equally frustrating to me, as it is to you, that I cannot
provide more detail on the value these programs provide and the strict
limitations placed on how this information is used. I take serious my
responsibility to make sure intelligence programs are effective, but I work
equally hard to ensure that intelligence activities strictly comply with the
Constitution and our laws and protect Americans' privacy rights.
These surveillance programs have proven to be very
effective in identifying terrorists, their activities, and those associated
with terrorist plots, and in allowing the Intelligence Community and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation to prevent numerous terrorist attacks. More
information on this should be forthcoming.
On June 18, 2003, the Director of the National
Security Agency (NSA) testified to the House Intelligence Committee that
there have been "over 50 potential terrorist events" that these
programs helped prevent.
While the specific uses of these surveillance
programs remain largely classified, I have reviewed the classified testimony
and reports from the Executive Branch that describe in detail how this
surveillance has stopped attacks.
Two examples where these surveillance programs
were used to prevent terrorist attacks were: (1) the attempted bombing of the
New York City subway system in September 2009 by Najibullah Zazi and his
co-conspirators; and (2) the attempted attack on a Danish newspaper that
published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in October 2009 by U.S. citizen
David Headley and his associates.
Regarding the planned bombing of the New York City
subway system, the NSA has determined that in early September of 2009, while
monitoring the activities of Al Qaeda terrorists in Pakistan, NSA noted
contact from an individual in the U.S. that the FBI subsequently identified
as Colorado-based Najibullah Zazi. The U.S. Intelligence Community, including
the FBI and NSA, worked in concert to determine his relationship with Al
Qaeda, as well as identify any foreign or domestic terrorist links. The FBI
tracked Zazi as he traveled to New York to meet with co-conspirators, where
they were planning to conduct a terrorist attack using hydrogen peroxide
bombs placed in backpacks. Zazi and his co-conspirators were subsequently
arrested. Zazi eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb the NYC subway
system.
Regarding terrorist David Headley, he was also
involved in the planning and reconnaissance of the 2008 terrorist attacks in
Mumbai, India that killed 166 people, including six Americans. According to
NSA, in October 2009, Headley, a Chicago businessman and dual U.S. and
Pakistani citizen, was arrested by the FBI as he tried to depart from Chicago
O'Hare airport on a trip to Europe. Headley was charged with material support
to terrorism based on his involvement in the planning and reconnaissance of
the hotel attack in Mumbai 2008. At the time of his arrest, Headley and his
colleagues were plotting to attack the Danish newspaper that published the
unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, at the behest of Al Qaeda.
Not only has Congress been briefed on these
programs, but laws passed and enacted since 9/11 specifically authorize them.
The surveillance programs are authorized by the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA), which itself was enacted by Congress in 1978 to
establish the legal structure to carry out these programs, but also to
prevent government abuses, such as surveillance of Americans without approval
from the federal courts. The Act authorizes the government to gather communications
and other information for foreign intelligence purposes. It also establishes
privacy protections, oversight mechanisms (including court review), and other
restrictions to protect privacy rights of Americans.
The laws that have established and reauthorized
these programs since 9/11 have passed by mostly overwhelming margins. For
example, the phone call business record program was reauthorized most
recently on May 26, 2011 by a vote of 72-23 in the Senate and 250-153 in the
House. The internet communications program was reauthorized most recently on
December 30, 2012 by a vote of 73-22 in the Senate and 301-118 in the House.
You may be interested to know that the Senate
Intelligence Committee will be proposing changes to these programs to ensure
transparency and to make public additional facts. Attached to this letter is
an opinion piece I authored in the Washington Post on July 30, 2013
that further highlights our proposed changes. While I very much regret the
disclosure of classified information in a way that will damage our ability to
identify and stop terrorist activity, I believe it is important to ensure
that the public record now available on these programs is accurate and
provided with the proper context.
Again, thank you for contacting me with your
concerns and comments. I appreciate knowing your views and hope you continue
to inform me of issues that matter to you. If you have any additional
questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact my office in
Washington, D.C. at (202) 224-3841.
Sincerely yours,
Further information about my position on issues of concern to California
and the nation are available at my website, Feinstein.senate.gov.
You can also receive electronic e-mail updates by subscribing to my e-mail
list. Click here to sign up. And please visit my YouTube, Facebook
and Twitter
for more ways to communicate with me.Dianne Feinstein United States Senator |
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