Privacy Board Says NSA Phone Spying Is Illegal

Poor NSA. The world’s most powerful spy is drawing fire everywhere it turns these days — and on Thursday, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board weighed in.

An independent and bipartisan panel appointed by the president, PCLOB issued a report condemning the NSA’s bulk phone-record-collection program. In fact, the report says the program should be shut down altogether:

It lacks a viable legal foundation under Section 215 [of the Patriot Act], implicates constitutional concerns under the First and Fourth Amendments, raises serious threats to privacy and civil liberties as a policy matter, and has shown only limited value. As a result, the board recommends that the government end the program.

The report’s concerns about the expansive nature of the phone-record-collection program echo those of a separate review group, also appointed by President Obama. But unfortunately, the president himself hasn’t gotten the memo. Though he called for curbs on the program in a recent speech, he stopped far short of saying that it should get the hook.

Perhaps he should consider this line from PCLOB’s 238-page report:

“We have not identified a single instance involving a threat to the United States in which the program made a concrete difference in the outcome of a counterterrorism investigation.”

Repeat: not a single instance.

Tell President Obama to stop throwing billions of dollars at a program that does nothing but invade our privacy. Tell the president to support the USA Freedom Act.