THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

In theory the Congress has oversight of the many spy agencies operated by the US government. In reality the Congress has not got a clue what they are up to. Occasionally some will try to find out, as Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO)did recently with the NSA.

In a letter (PDF) recently sent to Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Mark Udall (D-CO), the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Inspector General explains that he cannot provide an estimate of how many Americans the agency has spied on, because doing so would “would itself violate the privacy of U.S. persons.”

That letter was first obtained by reporter Spencer Ackerman at Wired. It claims that even attempting to produce an estimate of how many Americans the agency has spied on is “beyond the [Inspector General's] capacity,” and that “dedicating sufficient additional resources would likely impede the NSA’s mission.”

Inspector General I. Charles McCullough concludes his letter by claiming that he “firmly [believes] that oversight of intelligence collection is a proper function of an Inspector General,” adding that he will “continue to work with you and the Committee to identify ways that we can enhance our ability to conduct effective oversight.”

While it’s not surprising that an NSA official would simply refuse to respond to any and all questions from Congress — they typically do — it is unusual for the agency to claim that a basic oversight function like estimating how many Americans have been spied on is effectively too great a task for them to even attempt, and may actually be beyond the purview of the Inspector General.

“All that Senator Udall and I are asking for is a ballpark estimate of how many Americans have been monitored under this law, and it is disappointing that the Inspectors General cannot provide it,” Wyden told Ackerman. “If no one will even estimate how many Americans have had their communications collected under this law then it is all the more important that Congress act to close the ‘back door searches’ loophole, to keep the government from searching for Americans’ phone calls and emails without a warrant.”

Good luck with that, everybody knows how much fun it is to read other people's mail, in any form.

FUCK THE NSA.