Gregory Ferenstein writes:
So far, Obama is keeping his promise to create a truly independent review board over national surveillance policy. Today, ABC reports that privacy hawk and Center for American Progress fellow, Peter Swire, will join a small group of government insiders to draft a public report on the National Security Agency’s civil liberties record. The review panel was announced along with several proposed reforms aimed at making the NSA surveillance program more transparent.
Swire, currently a professor of Georgia Institute of Technology, endorsed two court briefs claiming that the NSA’s program to collect call records (meta-data) of every Verizon phone call was illegal.
Read more about the panel on TechCrunch.
I disagree with Ferenstein that Obama has created a truly independent panel. Count me among those who are not impressed. Having government insiders conduct the review does not lend itself to a truly independent review.