I will be testifying today to the full House Judiciary Committee about FISA, NSA and the Snowden flap. You can download my full prepared remarks here.
In short
- I used this opportunity to muse on the resemblance between today and the waning Clinton era;
- I discuss the (surprisingly short) history of viewing intelligence as a sphere for detailed law-making;
- I then turn to the programs Edward Snowden made famous and the nut of my argument on section 215;
- I discuss my feeling that there’s less to the story than meets the eye on section 702;
- I cast doubt on the wisdom of trying to regulate intelligence use of big data tools;
- Wrapping up, I lay out one of the newer problems caused by even the limited transparency we’ve created in this field and remark on the Europeans’ shocked, shocked discovery that there’s gambling in the house;
- And finally, I suggest some solutions to the hostage problem.