Mici coincidențe în cazul Snowden

Încerc să ofer o abordare cronologică a scandalului Snowden care pornește mai devreme, pe la începutul anului 2013, atunci când Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, o comisie a administrație americane care se zbătea să își organizeze agenda, care nu avea un șef confirmat de Senat și care nu avea un cadru legal perfecționat. Coincidență sau nu, după ce în martie a.c. Comisia decidea ca Directorul pentru National Intelligence să prezinte, în iune, un raport privin gradul de instruire a personalului din sistem pentru respectarea drepturilor civile și a vieții private, iar în mai 2013 șeful comisiei era, în fine confirmat de Senat, în 6 iunie izbucnește scandalul Snowden.

5 martie 2013- Ce se discuta în Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board în minuta ședinței.

a. Despre conceptul de ”privacy” și mai ales despre cooperarea cu Europap.7 - ”Ms. Brand expressed her agreement with Board member remarks. Ms. Brand reiterated Ms. Cook’s expression of the Board’s appreciation of the time and effort federal agencies dedicated to the background briefings provided to the Board. Ms. Brand indicated that she was impressed by the attention given to establishing processes to protect privacy and civil liberties. Ms. Brand also noted that she is looking forward to an opportunity to obtain public input on the question of “what is privacy.”Mr. Dempsey noted that the term privacy is used as an umbrella term for a set of principles and that it will be helpful to the Board to explore this question.Ms. Wald stated that “privacy” has not been comprehensively or conceptually defined by the courts and that the Board is interested in hearing from experts in this field. Ms. Wald further noted that members of the Board has met with European privacy officials and has additional meetings scheduled. The Board is interested in discussing the types of issues they are confronted with and how they are handled.

b. Și problema accesului la informațiile privind programele anti-teroriste.

p.9- ”Ms. Wald noted that some agencies seem to have defined for themselves those programs they consider to be counterterrorism programs and, therefore, the Board has not had occasion to specifically identify programs as “counterterrorism programs.” Ms. Cook added that agencies have not attempted to restrict the Board's access to information on the basis that a particular program is not counterterrorism-related. Ms. Wald noted that some

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agencies have distinguished between international and domestic counterterrorism programs.

c. Decizii luate de Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board

p. 6. - ”Ms. Cook next proposed that the Board direct the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to provide the Board with an inventory of all of the privacy and civil liberties training provided to federal, state, local, and tribal employees engaged in counterterrorism programs funded by the federal government. Ms. Cook further proposed that this inventory be submitted to the Board within 120 days of communicating the task to the ODNI. Ms. Cook asked if Board members had comments on the proposal. There being none, Ms. Cook asked that the Board approve the proposal. The proposal was approved – 4 ayes, 0 nays.

Să recapitulăm, Comisia decide un termen de120 de zile, adică 4 luni, adică martie, aprilie, mai, iunie 2013- era termenul la care trebuia transmis raportul.

Deci în iunie 2013 Directorul pentru National Intelligence trebuia să prezinte inventarul tuturor cursurilor de instruire privind protejarea vieții private și a libertăților civile prin care au fost instruiți cei care lucrau în programele anti-teroriste finanțate de SUA.Nu știu dacă raportul a ajuns, nici nu vreau să îl caut, dar știm altceva, în iunie, pe 6 iunie, începe sarabanda:

BBC credit6 June 2013: Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald reports the US National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers under a top secret court order granting the government unlimited authority to obtain communications data for a three-month period.7 June:The Guardian and Washington Post report the NSA is accessing the systems of US internet giants including Google and Facebook, and collecting data under a previously undisclosed surveillance programme called Prism. The programme allows officials to collect material including emails, live chats and search histories.8 June: US President Barack Obama says the government surveillance programmes strike "the right balance" between security and privacy and are closely overseen by Congress and the courts.Snowden named and in Hong Kong9 June: Edward Snowden, 29, is named as the source of the intelligence leaks. Speaking from Hong Kong, he explains why he went public.10 June: Mr Snowden checks out of his Hong Kong hotel and his whereabouts remain unknown as it is rumoured the US is pursuing a criminal investigation against him.

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11 June: The EU demands US assurances that Europeans' rights are not being infringed by the newly-revealed surveillance programmes. Mr Snowden's employer, defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton, says it has fired the infrastructure analyst for violating its ethics code.

Concluzia:În ciuda aparențelor și a scandalului media, cred că de fapt președintele Obama are o mare oportunitate să reformeze politica americană în sfera programelor anti-teroriste.Europa pare dornică să dea o mână de ajutor partenerului american.Republicanii nu sunt așa de entuziasmați.

Bonus, câteva reacții interesante după izbucnirea scandalului.

19 iunie 2013-Obama relying on untested oversight board on NSAThe board's chairman, former Federal Trade Commission official David Medine, was confirmed by the Senate in May 2013.Three members — Medine, Cook and Brand — have worked as lawyers at WilmerHale, a top legal and lobbying shop in Washington. Medine lobbied for several years for data security groups, including Iron Mountain and the National Association for Information Destruction, a trade association for shredding and other information disposal companies. Brand lobbied for Google, T-Mobile and a pharmaceutical association.

21 iunie 2013 - Obama to meet with privacy and civil liberties boardArticolul anunță că: ”Obama is also slated Friday to nominate former government attorney James Comeyto be the new director of the FBI.”

22 septembrie 2013- Obama's independent spying review team is closely tied to White House

The review panel overlaps with a similar effort by a second advisory group. In July, Obama asked the independent Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to report on the NSA programs and their effects on civil liberties. While PCLOB's work is expected to take months and has no deadline, Obama ordered the review group to report interim findings within 60 days and provide a final report by Dec. 15.'PCLOB chairman David Medine said recently that his group's purview was different because it was not subject to review by the White House. PCLOB's hearings so far have been conducted in public, although the group has been given classified briefings by national security officials."We're proceeding regardless of other groups' timelines," Medine said.

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