The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is no “rubber stamp” for government surveillance requests,rnsaid Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., based on a letter from the FISA court to top senators last week (CD Oct 16 p6). “This statement from the presiding judge of thernFISA Court makes it clear the court does not ‘rubber stamp’ requests for surveillance of terrorism suspects,”rnsaid Feinstein in a statement Tuesday. “In fact, one in four applications undergo substantial revisionrnduring the court’s review process and others are withdrawn entirely. The FISA Court is tasked withrnconducting careful legal analysis of all administration requests, and these data reinforce my belief that thernFISA Court is taking that mandate seriously.” Feinstein has plans to propose legislation to make U.S. surveillancernpractices more transparent but has largely defended U.S. intelligence agencies, calling their surveillancernmethods vital to national security.
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