NYT: U.S. Declassifies FISA Court Documents about the Protect America Act

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/08/01/us/01paa-foia.html

AUG. 1, 2015

U.S. Declassifies FISA Court Documents about the Protect America Act

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by The New York Times, [1] the Obama administration has declassified and released documents related to the Protect America Act from late 2007 and early 2008. Some are entirely new to the public, and some were previously released but have now been reprocessed to see if additional information could be left unredacted. The disclosure of the documents fills in gaps in the historical record regarding the evolution of the Bush administration’s post-9/11 warrantless surveillance program. In August 2007, Congress temporarily legalized a form of that program with the Protect America Act, permitting surveillance without warrants on domestic soil so long as the target was a foreigner abroad. The law permitted the NSA to immediately begin using its power, even before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved its procedures. In early 2008, the court did approve those procedures. The Protect America Act expired, but later in 2008, Congress replaced it with the FISA Amendments Act.

Savage NYT FOIA Protect America Act 07312015release (PDF) [2]

[1] https://s3.amazonaws.com/pacer-documents/S.D.N.Y. 14-cv-03948 dckt 000002_000 filed 2014-06-03.pdf

[2] http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2190145/savaget-nyt-foia-protect-america-act.pdf