Posted by
Sunny on Monday, March 05, 2007 8:02:39 PM
Yes, that Lanny Davis, you know the former Clinton lawyer. Apparently after reviewing the programs, he and his board member approve of the electronic and financial spying programs that Bush has used to subvert our constitutional right to privacy. Well, not ours, but our enemies.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A White House privacy board is giving its stamp of approval to two of the Bush administration's controversial surveillance programs - electronic eavesdropping and financial tracking - and says they do not violate citizens' civil liberties.
After operating mostly in secret for a year, the five-member Privacy and Civil Liberties Board is preparing to release its first report to Congress next week.
The report finds that both the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program and the Treasury Department's monitoring of international banking transactions have sufficient privacy protections, three board members told The Associated Press in telephone interviews.
Both programs have multiple layers of review before sensitive information is accessed, they said.
...
Lanny Davis, a former Clinton White House counsel and the lone Democrat on the panel, described the board's first report to Congress as modest. He said most of the work in the past year was spent being briefed on the administration's surveillance programs.
"We felt reassured by the checks and balance concerns," Davis said. He said that after several classified briefings, members were impressed by the multiple layers of review, which included audit trails to track whoever has access to the data.
Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TERROR_PRIVACY?SITE=WIRE&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT