The secretive U.S. Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Court did not deny a single government request in 2015 for electronic surveillance orders granted for foreign intelligence purposes, continuing a longstanding trend, a Justice Department document showed.
The court received 1,457 requests last year on behalf of the National Security Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for authority to intercept communications, including email and phone calls, according to a Justice Department memo sent to leaders of relevant congressional committees on Friday and seen by Reuters. The court did not reject any of the applications in whole or in part, the memo showed.
The total represented a slight uptick from 2014, when the court received 1,379 applications and rejected none.
Source: Reuters
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2016, @06:28AM
There is judicial oversight and the NSA and FBI are making reasonable legal requests. Everything is OK.
Tinfoil hatters have no good reason not to love Big Brother. God bless Obama.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2016, @07:59AM
and dont forget GW BushCheney either.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2016, @08:06AM
Thank GW BushCheney for creating the most perfect government. So perfect it was and is that Barry Obama could find nothing that needed Change.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Monday May 02 2016, @02:07PM
Indeed, I'm fairly certain they are. The stuff that wouldn't get approved, they just do without requesting!
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Monday May 02 2016, @06:46AM
The sub-title says it all.
(Score: 2) by RedBear on Monday May 02 2016, @07:52AM
If these people had any brains at all you would think they could come up with a few bogus surveillance requests that are so clearly unconstitutional that the court would collude with them in rejecting the requests so they can all at least pretend that this secret spy court has an actual purpose. But nooooo, they just go ahead and push through everything and reject nothing, thus clearly demonstrating to even a blind person that the court has absolutely no point in existing. You have to admit that's an extraordinary level of incompetence from all parties involved. *golf clap*
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 02 2016, @08:02AM
That's the idea, idiot. To demonstrate that the secret spy court has no reason to exist, and anyone who says it has a reason to exist must be a paranoid delusional schizophrenic. The secret court can be eliminated at the earliest convenience, and we can just ignore the crazy lunatics who will claim that the really unconstitutional stuff will begin as soon as the court is eliminated.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by RedBear on Monday May 02 2016, @08:47AM
Wait, what? You believe that the fact the secret spy court is obviously totally corrupted by blind authoritarianism is actually proof that every single surveillance request brought before the court was entirely constitutional and the surveillance community are all pure incorruptible white knights in shining armor? One of us is definitely very detached from the reality of human nature.
Unless you're being as facetious as I was. But in that case you'd be attributing a level of conscious competence to the people in charge that I find quite unlikely to exist.
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 4, Funny) by MadTinfoilHatter on Monday May 02 2016, @09:42AM
you would think they could come up with a few bogus surveillance requests
They tried. They passed too. :-P
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 02 2016, @12:52PM
With that username anything you post on this topic area will get upmodded. Use your power wisely. :-)
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Monday May 02 2016, @05:48PM
Is is possible that there is some momentum-wielding automatic stamp machine, perhaps made from rubber [google.com], that influences the rejections, making them instead approvals?