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by humbert
4395 days ago
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> what we've consistently not seen is a bunch of people trying to subvert democracy, not even according to the very documents NSA and their managers thought would be safest from ever being publically disclosed. In August 2013, a report by Reuters revealed that the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration advises DEA agents to practice parallel construction when creating criminal cases against Americans that are actually based on NSA warrantless surveillance. [1] The use of illegally-obtained evidence is generally inadmissible under the Fruit of the poisonous tree doctrine. [2] [1] http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/05/us-dea-sod-idUSBRE...
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_construction |
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Even that has rules, and the rules are on the whole followed.
Parallel construction is about finding evidence that can hold up in the court of law, without divulging classified intelligence "sources and methods" (you know, much the very things NSA is complaining about Snowden having done).
It starts from evidence legally collected by NSA (which is why "fruit of the poisonous tree" would not apply). The law permits the NSA to share that legally-collected information in some cases with law enforcement.
But law enforcement can't build a case on that without burning the NSA source, so NSA advises them on how to start a new trail that can lead to a prosecution without NSA having to close off that intelligence source.
Is it unfair? Perhaps, but then so is Google using legal tax loopholes to avoid paying taxes. Distasteful perhaps, but legally permissible.