Obama admin says disclosing secret court opinion on illegal spying could damage national securityMadison Ruppert This came in response to a lawsuit that would force the disclosure of an opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the court that oversees the warrantless wiretapping program which the White House claims is immune to lawsuits. This court authorized every single request from the government in 2011 and when documents related to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) were recently requested through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), those who requested them received documents that were almost entirely redacted. According to Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, the FISA court found on at least one occasion that the governments minimization procedures used while conducting surveillance breached he Fourth Amendment. Now that ruling is being sought out. In this latest attempt to avoid having to actually be transparent, the Obama administration said that the disclosure of that secret opinion would implicate classified intelligence sources and methods and thus, The government has determined that disclosure of the information withheld from Plaintiff could result in exceptionally grave and serious damage to the national security. When it comes to the governments claims about the disclosure of the opinion, Jacqueline Coleman Snead, a senior Justice Department counsel, said the EFF obviously cannot contend otherwise. If this information was released, it could shed light on the entire current surveillance program under the 2008 FISA Amendments Act that legalized the Bush-era warrantless wiretapping program which began soon after September 11, 2001. Currently, the FISA Amendments Act gives the government the ability to conduct e-mail and telephone surveillance on a massive scale within the United States without probable cause warrants. All the government has to do is claim that the people or groups targeted are reasonably believed to be located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information. In other words, the government can collect e-mails and phone calls in the United States so long as the target is a suspected terrorist group overseas, explains David Kravets. If the government collects e-mails that are sent by people believed to be American, the persons identity is supposed to be given a pseudonym or minimized. The glaring problem is that since the rulings are secret, its impossible to know just how restricted this type of surveillance is and given what Wyden said last year, we can safely assume its not carried out in the manner we might hope for. The government wants to keep the opinions secret because, according to Kravets, the FISA Amendments Act generally requires the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to rubber-stamp terror-related electronic surveillance requests. Under the law, the government doesnt even have to directly identify the target of the surveillance or the facility to be monitored. The surveillance can begin an entire week before the government even makes the request, and keep in mind the vast majority of those requests, in some years all of them, are approved. In the incredibly rare case that the court rejects a government surveillance application, the surveillance can actually continue during the entire appeals process. Did I forget anything or miss any errors? Would you like to make me aware of a story or subject to cover? Or perhaps you want to bring your writing to a wider audience? Feel free to contact me at admin@EndtheLie.com with your concerns, tips, questions, original writings, insults or just about anything that may strike your fancy. Please support our work and help us start to pay contributors by doing your shopping through our Amazon link or check out some must-have products at our store. This article first appeared at End the Lie. Madison Ruppert is the Editor and Owner-Operator of the alternative news and analysis databaseEnd The Lie and has no affiliation with any NGO, political party, economic school, or other organization/cause. He is available for podcast and radio interviews. Madison also now has his own radio show on UCYTV Monday nights 7 PM 9 PM PT/10 PM 12 AM ET. Show page link here: http://UCY.TV/EndtheLie. If you have questions, comments, or corrections feel free to contact him at admin@EndtheLie.com linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 