The good news is that the NSA is finally having to answer to someone, the bad news is that they have called for a secret (at least the content is secret) lobbying event in the house of representatives.
Today General Alexander requested an Emergency Private Briefing To Lobby Against Justin Amash's Amendment Curtailing Its Power. Amash (R-Michigan) is a "libertarian" trying to take the space previously occupied by Rand Paul in the House, but on this one he has a decent point and what's more the support of John Conyers (D-Michigan) a person on who's judgement one can typically rely. The relatively mild requirement of his amendment is that the NSA follow the letter of the law as described in section 215 of the Patriot Act and restrict their spying activities to those persons suspected of terrorism and not every person on the planet.
This relatively mild requirement has General Alexanders hair aflame, and running crying to the house to present the case to have our representatives vote against the amendment, and to protect his power base.
Head south below the squiggly thing
"In advance of anticipated action on amendments to the DoD Appropriations bill, Ranking Member C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of the House Intelligence Committee invites your Member to attend a question and answer session with General Keith B. Alexander of the National Security Agency," reads the invitation.
The invitation warned members that they could not share what they learned with their constituents or others. "The briefing will be held at the Top Secret/SCI level and will be strictly Members-Only," reads the invite.
Get that?
The content of the meeting is top secret (so it should only take about 10 min before it is leaked). By now we should only have Kieth Alexander or his minions addressing congress under oath, with a lie detector running double speed.
This is a very minor restriction on the activities of the NSA, considering the extent and depth of the NSA spying on each and everyone of us , and yet we have this panic response.
the Amish amendment bars the NSA and other agencies from using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to collect records, including telephone call records, that pertain to persons who are not subject to an investigation under Section 215."
i.e. follow the law as it was written and intended not as you have more broadly interpreted it, yet even this minor restriction is too much for the NSA to bare. This Amendments covers only the first of the Snowden revelations, it is a very small step on the long pathway to regaining some semblance of control over the runaway security state.
I have already contacted my congress critter (Rush Holt) and let him know that I expect him to attend the briefing and to inform General Alexander that this is just the first of several actions that the NSA should expect to restrict their vast overreach and to restore the first fourth and fifth amendments of our constitution to their rightful place.
It would be really nice if lots of people also contacted their representative and let them know that the NSA has gone way too far.