<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:14pt"><div class="" style=""><a href="http://theweek.com/article/index/262945/the-nsa-has-a-shocking-new-excuse-for-destroying-evidence#axzz34TzFIna7" class="" style="">http://theweek.com/article/index/262945/the-nsa-has-a-shocking-new-excuse-for-destroying-evidence#axzz34TzFIna7</a><br style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 19px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;" class=""><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: ff-meta-serif-web-pro; font-size: 54px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; line-height: 24px; background-color: transparent;"><br></span></div><div style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: transparent;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;"><span style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px;
background-color: transparent;">"O</span></span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">ne thing that makes reporting on the NSA so difficult is that you have to deconstruct their statements like Derrida to figure out what they're actually saying. (This is why all responsible people read</span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;"> </span><a href="http://www.emptywheel.net/" class="" style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px; border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Marcy Wheeler</a><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 24px;">.)</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial;
background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"Luckily, here's an NSA issue anyone can sink their teeth into. It demonstrates the squirmy NSA legal technique, and how by its own logic the agency ought to be broken up or closed altogether.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"The background is that the NSA is being sued around the block by all manner of people over the Snowden revelations. Pertaining to a suit brought by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, <a
href="https://www.eff.org/document/order-re-evidence-preservation-0" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">a previous court order</a> had instructed the NSA to preserve data that it had collected under Section 702 of the Amendments Act to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"That order has since been reversed, because the NSA has claimed (in addition to the usual business about how stopping this program will grievously harm American citizens) that it
physically cannot store all the information it collects under Section 702. As <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/06/09/nsa-our-systems-are-so-complex-we-cant-stop-them-from-deleting-data-wanted-for-lawsuit/" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">Andrea Peterson at<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">The Washington Post</span> reported</a>, the NSA's deputy director, Richard Ledgett, wrote a rather astonishing court filing, in which he said that "a requirement to preserve all data acquired under Section 702 presents significant operational problems, only one of which is that<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;"
class=""> the </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">NSA</span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class=""> may have to shut down all systems and databases that contain Section 702 information</span>." (Emphasis added.) Ironically, Ledgett claims that previous privacy restrictions that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court placed on the program necessitate deleting the data the EFF wants preserved. You can practically see Ledgett sticking his finger in the eye of the EFF's legal director.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin:
initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"In any case, as Peterson notes, this puts the EFF in a strange position, since it is now arguing to preserve evidence for legal purposes it would ultimately want destroyed as a policy.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"But aside from the legal arcana, this is an excellent example of the Kafkaesque logic that predominates when it it comes to our intelligence agencies. The NSA is almost saying, "We've got your privacy protections in here, honest, but
unfortunately it just so happens that these protections mean we have to destroy all this evidence related to your lawsuit." Whatever the situation, it just so happens that the intelligence apparatus is regretfully excused from accountability. Marcy Wheeler is <a href="http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/06/06/dianne-feinstein-i-believe-specific-selection-term-is-confusing/" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">constantly</a> <a href="http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/06/05/dojs-idea-of-an-appropriate-passive-aggressive-response-to-accusations-they-destroyed-evidence-destroy-more-evidence/" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">uncovering</a> <a href="http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/06/01/the-phone-andor-internet-dragnet/" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px;
vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">various</a> <a href="http://www.emptywheel.net/2014/06/01/does-nsa-consider-facial-matches-connections/" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">iterations</a><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class=""> of this stuff.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"I'm skeptical that the data preservation the <span data-scayt_word="EFF"
data-scaytid="31" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">EFF</span> is asking for is impossible. But the really troubling possibility is that the <span data-scayt_word="NSA" data-scaytid="32" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">NSA</span> is actually right. It's anybody's guess precisely how much data the <span data-scayt_word="NSA" data-scaytid="83" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">NSA</span>is shifting around, but it's <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/07/24/blueprints-of-nsa-data-center-in-utah-suggest-its-storage-capacity-is-less-impressive-than-thought/" style="border: 0px; outline-width: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; color:
rgb(11, 109, 220);" class="">reportedly in the <span data-scayt_word="exabytes" data-scaytid="35" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">exabytes</span> overall</a>. So yes, it might be impossible for the agency to store more than a few weeks or so of the data it's collecting.</span></div><div dir="ltr" style="margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 1em; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;" class=""><span style="font-size: 18px;">"The NSA's legal squirming is bad enough. But an agency writing itself a blank check to allegedly destroy evidence <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px;
vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">based on </span><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">the sheer size and complexity of the possibly illegal program in question</span>is another thing entirely. There shouldn't be an "unless your dragnet surveillance program is <span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background: transparent;" class="">really</span>big" exception to the Fourth Amendment.</span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 19px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-style: normal; background-color: transparent;" class=""><br class="" style=""></div></div></body></html>