FISA Court Judges Upset With Recent NSA Leaks That Portrays Them As Collaborators With The Government On Spying

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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, the government is required to obtain a judicial warrant — similar to those issued in criminal investigations — before federal intelligence agencies can conduct electronic surveillance and gather intelligence within the United States in the interest of national security. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established by Congress to approve or deny warrant applications related to national security investigations.

Secret-Court Judges Upset At Portrayal Of ‘Collaboration’ With Government -- Washington Post

Recent leaks of classified documents have pointed to the role of a special court in enabling the government’s secret surveillance programs, but members of the court are chafing at the suggestion that they were collaborating with the executive branch.

A classified 2009 draft report by the National Security Agency’s inspector general relayed some details about the interaction between the court’s judges and the NSA, which sought approval for the Bush administration’s top-secret domestic surveillance programs. The report was described in The Washington Post on June 16 and released in full Thursday by The Post and the British newspaper the Guardian.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, the former chief judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, took the highly unusual step Friday of voicing open frustration at the account in the report and court’s inability to explain its decisions.

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My Comment: I suspect that these judges never thought in their wildest dreams that some young intelligence subcontractor would eventually leak some of the most important details and workings of this secret court to the public .... specifically at suggestions that they were/are collaborating with the executive branch.