Without exception all of the companies tied to the PRISM leak maintained that they were only complying with orders made under the FISA Amendments Act, which established certain limits placed on a Bush-era warrantless surveillance following that scandal. Of course, critics argue that such courts are hand-picked and merely rubber-stamp requests that enable mass surveillance.
One such critic, retired US District Judge Nancy Gertner, told a panel discussion on constitutional privacy protection on Friday that the selection process for federal judges serving on such secret courts is extremely biased. “It’s an anointment process. It’s not a selection process. But you know, it’s not boat rockers. So you have a [federal] bench which is way more conservative than before. This is a subset of that. And it’s a subset of that who are operating under privacy, confidentiality, and national security. To suggest that there is meaningful review it seems to me is an illusion,” says Gertner.
Article Appeared @http://rt.com/usa/microsoft-facebook-release-nsa-stats-738/