Controls Over NSA Spying Considered by U.S. Privacy Board

A citizen’s privacy board will consider whether opponents of U.S. spying programs should be represented before a secret court overseeing government surveillance -- as recommended by a former judge on that court.

Altering how the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court operates is one of several suggestions that deserve “serious” consideration, said David Medine, chairman of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board. The five-member board held its first public meeting in Washington to hear from former government officials and legal and civil-rights experts on U.S. programs exposed by ex-National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to spy on Americans’ phone records and e-mails. The secret court is “one-sided” because it only hears from the government, James Robertson, a former federal judge based in Washington who served on the court from 2002 to 2005, told the panel. He told the Associated Press that he left the court over concerns about the surveillance. “We had a range of recommendations on all sides that have given us a lot of things to think about,” Medine said after the seven-hour meeting. “We are going to continue to review the FISA court opinions and we’re going to continue to get briefings from the government so that we can better understand the details of these programs.”