Returning home after PLSC and all the news about NSA leaks, I tweeted, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, “So what’s the and Civil Liberties Oversight Board doing this week?”
I didn’t know that they were already on it. Martin Kaste of NPR had reported:
…. In 2004, [Congress] created the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, but it’s taken a little while for the board to get going. With no website or email, “we’re really the equivalent of a government start-up,” says David Medine, the board’s brand new chairman.
He’s been on the job for all of one week. For six years, partisan squabbles in the Senate held up confirmation of the board’s members, but now it’s finally complete and raring to go.
Medine has already requested a classified briefing on the two controversial NSA programs. He says he wants to find out what’s really going on, the purpose of these programs, and how effective they’ve been. He also questions their legal basis and wants to know how each of these programs have addressed concerns about privacy and civil liberties.
Read more on NPR.