Congressional Reps Tell NSA To Cease Sharing Unminimized Data With Domestic Law Enforcement Agencies

The FBI announced (without going into verifiable detail) that it had implemented new minimization procedures for handling information tipped to it by the NSA's Prism dragnet. Oddly, this announcement arrived nearly simultaneously with the administration's announcement that it was expanding the FBI's intake of unminimized domestic communications collected by the NSA.

So, which was it? Was the FBI applying more minimization or was it gaining more raw access? The parties involved have so far refused to offer any further details on either of the contradictory plans, save for vague assurances about the lawfulness of both options.

Fortunately, a few legislators have stepped up to do something about it. Megan Geuss of Ars Technica reports that Reps. Ted Lieu and Blake Farenthold have sent a letter to the NSA telling it to hold off on its plans to share unminimized data and communications with domestic intelligence agencies" at least until it's been discussed publicly.

We respectfully request you confirm whether the NSA intends to routinely provide intelligence information-collected without a warrant-to domestic law enforcement agencies. If the NSA intends to go down this uncharted path, we request that you stop. The proposed shift in the relationship between our intelligence agencies and the American people should not be done in secret. The American people deserve a public debate. The United States has a long standing principle of keeping our intelligence and military spy apparatus focused on foreign adversaries and not the American people.

The letter points out that while Congress hasgranted the NSA "extraordinary authority" to conduct warrantless surveillance and harvest massive amounts of data, it has notdone so for domestic intelligence and law enforcement agencies. But that deliberate limitation of powers has been undone by the administration's expansion. It may be indirect -- requiring the assistance of the NSA -- but it accomplishes the same purpose: giving warrantless surveillance and bulk collection powers to domestic agencies by proxy.

The letter -- sent to the heads of a variety of Congressional committees -- pulls no punches in its comparative depiction of this overreach.

We believe allowing the NSA to be used as an arm of domestic law enforcement is unconstitutional. Our country has always drawn a line between our military and intelligence services, and domestic policing and spying. We do not -- and should not -- use U.S. Army Apache helicopters to quell domestic riots; Navy Seal Teams to take down counterfeiting rings; or the NSA to conduct surveillance on domestic street gangs.

What's most amazing about the administration's move is that it followed -- directly -- two and a half years of NSA document leaks, their accompanying protests, lawsuits and backlash, the passage of the USA Freedom Act and an intense debate over the lawfulness of the PATRIOT Act. Add to that the fact that it was dropped right in the middle of a heated legal battle that has shown the FBI to be both grasping for power and incapable of telling the truth -- and it clearly shows the administration is so insulated from the collateral damage of a decade-plus of constantly expanding surveillance powers as to be completely unable to detect shifts in tone.

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