DNI Clapper Declassifies Additional Intelligence Community Documents Regarding Collection Under Section 501 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
November 18, 2013
In June of this year, President Obama directed me to declassify and make public as much information as possible about certain sensitive programs while being mindful of the need to protect sensitive classified intelligence activities and national security. Since then, I have authorized the declassification and public release of numerous documents pertaining to the government’s collection under Sections 501 and 702 of FISA.
Today I authorized the declassification and public release of additional documents relating to collection under Section 501, bringing the total to nearly 2000 pages of documents released to the public so far, including 20 orders and opinions of the Foreign Surveillance Court, 11 pleadings and other documents submitted to the Court, 24 documents provided to Congress, and 20 reports, training slides, and other internal documents describing the legal basis for the programs and how they operate. The information released today includes a number of internal NSA documents, training slides and internal guidance, which demonstrate the care with which NSA’s foreign intelligence collection pursuant to Section 501 is run, managed, and overseen. Also included is the United States Signals Intelligence Directive 18 which details policies and procedures to ensure NSA’s missions and functions are conducted in a manner that safeguards the constitutional rights of U.S persons, and two opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court concerning a now-discontinued NSA bulk electronic communications metadata program. These documents were properly classified and their declassification was not done lightly.
Release of these documents reflects the Executive Branch’s continued commitment to making information about this intelligence collection program publicly available when appropriate and consistent with the national security of the United States. Additionally, they demonstrate the extent to which the Intelligence Community kept both Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court apprised of the status of the collection program under Section 215. Some information has been redacted because these documents include discussion of matters that continue to be properly classified for national security reasons and the harm to national security would be great if disclosed. These documents will be made available at the website of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and at ICOntheRecord.tumblr.com, the public website dedicated to fostering greater public visibility into the intelligence activities of the U.S. Government.
James R. Clapper
Director of National Intelligence
Source: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/dni.gov?hc_location=stream
See documents http://icontherecord.tumblr.com/
See related video: Rep. Lee FISA Amendment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u55RMXExMBs