<story><title>Two years later, Senator’s criticism of NSA spying sinks in</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/two-years-later-senators-criticism-of-nsa-spying-sinks-in/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gizmo686</author><text>What do you mean by him not leaking information. Article 1 section 6 of the constitution gives Congressmen immunity for anything they say in the House. Gravel v. United States (The Pentagon Papers) established that this immunity applies to leaking classified information.&lt;p&gt;Admittedly, using this immunity would require him to officially leak it under his own name, which likely comes at a significant political cost (could it get him kicked of the Intelligence Committee?), but legally he is protected.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I am aware that him leaking would come at a significant cost and probably get him kicked off the committee. My point is that he does have the power to leak, and may decide that the change he can effect by leaking outways the change he can effect by staying on the committee.</text></item><item><author>dragontamer</author><text>If people want to follow this story, it is imperative for you to follow Wyden and Udall, and to fully understand the powers of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Senate Intelligence Committee was set up in the 70s as a way to reign in the powers of the Executive Branch, after the abuses that came light from the Nixon Administration. (Historically, look up the Church Committee for details on that. There&amp;#x27;s a lot of history here).&lt;p&gt;The Senate Intelligence Committee is cleared, has access to all Top Secret data, and is basically the watchdog of the Intelligence Community. There are only 15 members on the Committee (8 from the majority party, 7 from the minority party), so Wyden and Udall consist of 15% of the voting power in there. Every single bill that affects the intelligence community has to pass through the Senate Intelligence Committee before it moves to the rest of Congress.&lt;p&gt;Wyden&amp;#x27;s biggest criticism of the intelligence community is the innate reluctance to declassify data. There is a very strong &amp;quot;overclassification&amp;quot; culture in agencies, and its at the point where it sniffles debate on this subject. It would do people good to read up on Wyden&amp;#x27;s proposals, and to work with him in the Senate.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s the &amp;quot;inside man&amp;quot;, he&amp;#x27;s got a TS clearance... he has the power to investigate the Intelligence Community. (But not leak information, he has to speak on vague terms of course, because what he talks about is TS information). And he&amp;#x27;s been stating his position for years on this subject. If you want to rally behind someone, its Wyden and Udall. Furthermore, as a Senator on the Intelligence Committee, he has the power to kill and modify bills before they even reach debate.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dragontamer</author><text>And if Wyden an Udall fall out of the Senate Intelligence Committee, who will keep tabs on the Intelligence Community after that?&lt;p&gt;13 of the 15 members of the Senate Intelligence Committee were cool with everything revealed, and are currently defending it. Only Wyden and Udall have been critical to these programs. Politically speaking, everyone on the Senate Intelligence Committee are consistent with what they believe in.</text></comment>
<story><title>Two years later, Senator’s criticism of NSA spying sinks in</title><url>http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/two-years-later-senators-criticism-of-nsa-spying-sinks-in/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gizmo686</author><text>What do you mean by him not leaking information. Article 1 section 6 of the constitution gives Congressmen immunity for anything they say in the House. Gravel v. United States (The Pentagon Papers) established that this immunity applies to leaking classified information.&lt;p&gt;Admittedly, using this immunity would require him to officially leak it under his own name, which likely comes at a significant political cost (could it get him kicked of the Intelligence Committee?), but legally he is protected.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: I am aware that him leaking would come at a significant cost and probably get him kicked off the committee. My point is that he does have the power to leak, and may decide that the change he can effect by leaking outways the change he can effect by staying on the committee.</text></item><item><author>dragontamer</author><text>If people want to follow this story, it is imperative for you to follow Wyden and Udall, and to fully understand the powers of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Senate Intelligence Committee was set up in the 70s as a way to reign in the powers of the Executive Branch, after the abuses that came light from the Nixon Administration. (Historically, look up the Church Committee for details on that. There&amp;#x27;s a lot of history here).&lt;p&gt;The Senate Intelligence Committee is cleared, has access to all Top Secret data, and is basically the watchdog of the Intelligence Community. There are only 15 members on the Committee (8 from the majority party, 7 from the minority party), so Wyden and Udall consist of 15% of the voting power in there. Every single bill that affects the intelligence community has to pass through the Senate Intelligence Committee before it moves to the rest of Congress.&lt;p&gt;Wyden&amp;#x27;s biggest criticism of the intelligence community is the innate reluctance to declassify data. There is a very strong &amp;quot;overclassification&amp;quot; culture in agencies, and its at the point where it sniffles debate on this subject. It would do people good to read up on Wyden&amp;#x27;s proposals, and to work with him in the Senate.&lt;p&gt;He&amp;#x27;s the &amp;quot;inside man&amp;quot;, he&amp;#x27;s got a TS clearance... he has the power to investigate the Intelligence Community. (But not leak information, he has to speak on vague terms of course, because what he talks about is TS information). And he&amp;#x27;s been stating his position for years on this subject. If you want to rally behind someone, its Wyden and Udall. Furthermore, as a Senator on the Intelligence Committee, he has the power to kill and modify bills before they even reach debate.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ceejayoz</author><text>The Constitution also protects US citizens from execution without trial. And yet, &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anwar_al-Awlaki&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Anwar_al-Awlaki&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>