Senators Open Up Legal Action Over NSA Violation of Constitution
Two U.S. Senators are now alleging that the National Security Agency is guilty of criminal behavior, setting a precedent for legal action against the NSA.
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) asserted the charges on Friday, which could lead to more widespread action. The NSA may have violated the privacy of Americans thousands of times a year and deliberately violated restrictions imposed on it by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, Wyden told
reporters. Wyden said the FISA court itself had ruled that the NSA had
violated the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which bans
unreasonable search and seizures.Court Ruled NSA Violated the Fourth Amendment
The action that violated the Fourth Amendment was reportedly the interception of traffic on international fiber optic cables. The NSA and its British counterpart, GCHQ, have a program to do that called Global Telecoms Exploitation. The Senator also noted that the NSA had specifically violated at least one federal law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He and Udall also stated that they are aware of even more criminal actions at the NSA.Wyden is now saying publicly that the NSA is engaged in criminal behavior. What’s really outrageous though is that U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) defended the agency. Feinstein is the head of the Senate’s Intelligence Committee, and has repeatedly been in the media for her desires to ‘disarm Mr. and Mrs. America’.
NSA Holding Dirt on Politicians?
One has to wonder why Feinstein is defending blatantly criminal behavior. Does she really believe it protects America from terrorism? Or is she afraid that the NSA has something on her, such as the location of an overseas bank account stuffed with bribe money?If the NSA is intercepting communications, perhaps it is intercepting the communications of political leaders and using them for blackmail. This might explain why certain politicians were strongly critical of the agency are now supporting the NSA. Perhaps Feinstein and other leaders in the Congress are scared that the NSA will start leaking their secrets to the press if Congress launches an aggressive investigation of the agency. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), the head of the House intelligence committee, has also defended the NSA.
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