14 DAY TRIAL // When the NSA argues in favor of its mass surveillance programs, it usually states that there’s massive oversight set in place, making sure that the spy agency isn’t doing anything it really shouldn’t.
After it was revealed that the Congressional oversight team barely had any idea about what the NSA was really doing, it looks like the Pentagon intelligence watchdog wasn’t more aware of what was going on either.
According to The Guardian, the Pentagon watchdog was not aware of the NSA’s collection of domestic phone records that was exposed by media outlets last year thanks to documents from Edward Snowden.
Anthony C. Thomas, deputy Defense Department inspector general for intelligence and special program assessments, is the one who made the admission.
Thomas took on his job in March last year and he admits that he can’t exactly quantify how much oversight he performs on the NSA. “The bulk of that is in reviews that we have done, and in the collaborative work that we have done with the NSA IG,” said Thomas. “From my own personal knowledge, those programs, in and of themselves, I was not personally aware,” he explained.
Thomas has said that he sees the oversight plans from various defense-related intelligence inspectors general, including from the NSA. If one of them is performing an investigation in a certain area, the others aren’t necessarily blocked off from doing the same. Instead, a “constant discussion” takes place.
“If the NSA IG is looking into something and we feel that their reporting, their investigation is ongoing, we’ll wait to see what they find or what they don’t find, and that may dictate something that we may do. In the course of a planning process, we may get a hotline [call], or we may get some complaint that may dictate an action that we may or not take,” Thomas said.
When it comes to the NSA, the Pentagon watchdog mentions that they usually wait for information from the NSA IG.
Basically, it looks like they simply await to see what the NSA’s own investigation team comes with, taking everything at face value, not investigating further.
Under these circumstances, it’s fairly clear that the NSA barely has any type of oversight despite what it has been saying over the last months. Keith Alexander, the NSA chief, has said on several occasions that the director of National Intelligence, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Justice all make sure that the spy agency isn’t breaking any rules.