FISA Court Reverses Order To Destroy NSA Phone Data

itwbennett writes "The U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has temporarily reversed its earlier order that call records collected by the National Security Agency should be destroyed after the current five-year limit. The court modified its stand after a District Court in California on Monday ordered the government to retain phone records it collects in bulk from telecommunications carriers, as the metadata could be required as evidence in two civil lawsuits that challenge the NSA's phone records program under section 215 of the Patriot Act."

Handy

[s.petry]

FISA claims it's to hold for court purposes, but the NSA can still search this data while they hold it. So it suits at least one purpose which I'm sure we agree with, but should have come with a very specific instruction like "knock off the bullshit, you treasonous bastards!".

Re:Handy

[outlaw]

You seem to only recall on of the possible definitions (granted the most common, and the one the government would like to use against whistleblowers):

From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:

    treason
            n 1: a crime that undermines the offender's government [syn:
                      {treason}, {high treason}, {lese majesty}]
            2: disloyalty by virtue of subversive behavior [syn: {treason},
                  {subversiveness}, {traitorousness}]
            3: an act of deliberate betrayal [syn: {treachery}, {betrayal},
                  {treason}, {perfidy}]

The other two do, in some ways, describe the NSA & FISA

Re:Handy

[Krishnoid]

FISA claims it's to hold for court purposes, but the NSA can still search this data while they hold it.

I would think that holding this data:

• works against the NSA, as its surveillance utility decreases as a function of time,
• works for the litigants, as long as it contains evidence against the defendants usable within the statute of limitations for any wrongdoing it reveals.