On Friday, the Obama administration announced that it had sought—and the secret FISA court had granted—a renewed authorization for the NSA spying program that compels US telecommunications companies to turn over their telephone records in bulk.

“Consistent with his prior declassification decision and in light of the significant and continuing public interest in the telephony metadata collection program, the DNI [Director of National Intelligence] has decided to declassify and disclose publicly that the Government filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that the Court renewed that authority,” the Obama administration press release stated.

In other words, the Obama administration is disclosing the reauthorization this time, but it reserves for itself the power to conceal the program’s continued existence from the public in the future at its own discretion. The particular NSA program that was the subject of Friday’s press release apparently requires “renewal” every 90 days in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), also known as the FISA court after the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that created it.

Contrary to the press release’s characterization of recent events, the Obama administration did not voluntarily “declassify” the NSA program’s existence. Instead, the administration made at best a number of preemptive disclosures designed to soften the impact of ongoing revelations by NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the “public interest,” the United States is presently waging a desperate international campaign to capture or silence the 30-year-old former employee of Booz Allen Hamilton.

Snowden’s disclosures, among many other things, have highlighted the extent to which in recent years the FISA court has quietly assumed a vastly more significant role in the state apparatus. Within this shadow judiciary, a body of secret law is being promulgated, including secret interpretations of the Constitution, pursuant to which secret rulings are issued purportedly granting legal authority for an array of secret programs and activities. (See “Secret laws, secret government”)

read more http://www.globalresearch.ca/fisa-court-renews-nsa-spying-program/5...