Remember, senators are hardly allowed to say anything at all about what they know. So we need to support the ones who stand up and criticize the intelligence establishment, because the NSA needs to be reigned in:
WASHINGTON — Colorado Sen. Mark Udall (D) said on Sunday that any arguments against reform of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs crumbled this past week, following the release of a White House report that criticized the programs and a judge’s ruling that questioned their constitutionality. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Udall said, “The arguments for the status quo fell apart this week in Washington.”
“It’s now time to really fundamentally reform the way in which the NSA operates,” he said.
Udall pointed to the 46 recommendations contained in the White House panel’s report. They include the establishment of an independent privacy panel, the presence of public advocates at secret surveillance court hearings, and better protections for whistleblowers.
Also this week, a federal judge ruled that the NSA’s massive telephone metadata dragnet is likely unconstitutional because it violates the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure. Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden earlier this year revealed that the spy agency collects information on tens of millions of phone calls by private citizens worldwide.
As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Udall has long been aware of the NSA’s surveillance programs, but until Snowden made the highly classified programs public, Udall was forbidden to discuss them. Nevertheless, he said he feels like he has “been shouting from the wilderness” for years about the NSA violations of privacy.
