The NSA hates the Constitution; the Media Hates Actual Reporting

3 min read

The New York Times is doing some actual reporting of late, and its wordsmiths are striving mightily to construct sentences that are in dire need of an editor’s tender attentions:

“Timothy Edgar, a former intelligence official in the Bush and Obama administrations, said that the rule concerning collection “about” a person targeted for surveillance rather than directed at that person had provoked significant internal discussion.”

Perhaps the following would be in order, given that the rule is discussed at length in preceding paragraphs:

“Timothy Edgar, a former intelligence official in the Bush and Obama administrations, said that the rule had provoked significant internal discussion.”

I digress, when reading the terrible writing that passes muster at the New York Times.

In Charlie Savage’s most recent article, entitled N.S.A. Said to Search Content of Messages to and From U.S., he reveals the shocking information that the N.S.A. surveys emails that are neither to nor from the actual suspects. In fact, the NSA considers reading an email about a suspect to be surveillance targeting the suspect. If I were to mention the name of an individual the NSA suspected of terrorism in my email, the N.S.A.’s position is that they can legally search my email containing a passing reference to the individual in question.

After all, the ‘target’ is the suspect, not me.

In this brave new world, it bears mentioning that the N.S.A. is part of an alphabet soup division over at the DEA known as the Special Operations Division. The N.S.A.’s intercepts that detect evidence of criminal activity are compiled and shared with the DEA, which then uses the intercepts to disseminate tips to state and local law enforcement agencies. The DEA has instructed law enforcement to hide the origins of its tips and intelligence, because defense attorneys might use such information to establish that their client was subject to an unconstitutional search and seizure of information, thereby disqualifying him from conviction. Fruits of the poisonous tree will get a case dismissed in criminal courts across the nation, and thus law enforcement must lie.

The technical term for lying over at the DEA. is parallel reconstruction. The tips were initially confined to drug cases, but the DEA expanded the use of the intelligence to money laundering and extortion cases as well. Organized crime and gangs have also fallen under the purview of the Special Operations Division, and the DEA is aiding local prosecutors in their cases, and scrubbing their involvement. How much of the DEA’s information comes from the NSA is unknown, because Reuters has only recently broken the story.