P H O T O BY STEPHEN VO SS
Street Roots sits down with Senator Wyden to talk about the security of our country
BY JOANNE ZUHL
S T A F F W R IT E R
Joan n e Zuhl: You’ve likened PRISM and
Like you, I’m angry.
Angry at being spied upon by my own
government, and then lied to about it. Not
exactly virgin territory for a nation with the
COINTELPRO, Iran-Contra and sundry other
covert operations under its belt, but this is
still fresh, and it effects everyone.
Ron Wyden’s angry too. The senior senator
from Oregon isn’t wasting any time on his
summer break in campaigning against the
federal government’s domestic surveillance
program.
The revelations of the bulk collection of
emails, phone records and more, along with
personal data trails of citizens, with the
complicity
of
telecom m unications
corporations, has bolstered Wyden’s call to
reverse what are being described as blanket
and indiscriminate powers tapped under the
Patriot Act to spy on Americans. He and a
growing number of lawmakers — on both
sides of the aisle - are calling for reforms to
the National Security Agency (NSA), the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
and its secret court. It’s part of what Wyden
calls the “secret law,” with legal analysis,
authorization and operations all considered
classified in a “culture of misinformation.”
Wyden is back in Portland during the
break, and after a town hall meeting about
health care, Street Roots sat down with the
senator to chat about our government’s
mission to spy on its citizens.
the government’s surveillance operations on
citizens to other major covert operations of
the U.S. in the past, including the Bush
administrations unwarranted surveillance
practices. Is this different - worse - than
what we’ve seen in the past?
Ron Wyden: This is a unique time in our
country’s history. The merger of this
extraordinary surveillance technology
coupled with the executive branch’s ability to
conjure up legal arguments for using them,
and the most bizarre court in America, the
FISA court, that really only hears one side of
the case, is a prescription for trouble.
It used to be that technological limitations
worked to the individual’s interest, because
there were limits on technology, it was
harder to violate people’s rights. Now with
technological ability to do virtually anything,
the real protection is focusing in the rights of
the individual under the law.
The technology has advanced to the point
where protecting the individual under the law
is absolutely essential, because with
technology today there are almost no limits.
The growth of omnipresent, ever-expanding
surveillance is an enormous challenge.
J.Z.: You’ve described the activities NSA
and the FBI - in their data mining of citizens’
telecommunication records and potential
civil liberties violations, as just the tip of the
iceberg. So what is it that you know that we
should know?
R.W.: I can’t get into the details of classified
information. But two areas I’m concerned
about are when Director (James) Clapper
(Director of National Intelligence) wrote to
me and 25 other senators, saying that there
had been violations of the Patriot Act. And
while I can’t get into details, I will say those
violations are significant. More serious than
he said in that public letter.
The reality is that, part of the reform
agenda has to roll back this culture of
misinformation. You had the head of the NSA
go to a public meeting and say we don’t hold
data on U.S. citizens. That’s one of the most
false statem ents ever made about
surveillance, and a big reason I had to ask
Director Clapper in an open hearing because
we couldn’t get an adequate response.
J.Z.: If you can’t get an honest answer, what
chance is there for the public?
R.W.: First of all, as I said, the last time the
Patriot Act came up for a vote, the truth
always comes out. We’ve won a number of
substantial victories over the years. We’ve
blocked the overly broad anti-leaks law, and
led the fight to roll back total information
awareness programs. I did get a good FISA
change, passed earlier, that offered privacy
protections for Americans traveling
abroad. We blocked General (Michael)
Hayden from rolling back the powers of the
inspector general when he was head of the
CIA.
This is a time when, if we don’t take steps
to ensure that Americans can have both
security and liberty, I think our generation is
going to regret it forever.
J.Z.: You’re spearheading two pieces of
legislation heading into the fall session that
would reform how the FISA court operates
and how the Patriot Act is interpreted. What
would these bills do?
R.W.: The big part of the problem with the
Patriot Act is that the language that talks
about collecting information that’s relevant
to dealing with terrorists was somehow
morphed into a program that allowed the
government to collect everybody’s phone
records, who they called and where they
were called from.
The defenders say they’re not listening to
the calls. When you have this metadata, it can
me very intrusive. You can find out if
somebody called their psychiatrist several
times after midnight and for how long they
talked. You don’t have to be listening to the
call to know a lot about that person. So Sen.
Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and I want to roll it back
to what people think it is.
J.Z.: But were the oversight and the
See W yden, page 11
Inside
Metro
East
Portland
A people
without a land
The push fo r a hotel
and the lack o f
affordable housing
One doctors
journey to help
the people
Street Roots goes
in-depth on the
R om as plight in
Europe
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