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Sarasota News Leader August 2, 2013 Page 37 caused outrage around the globe. Documents released by Snowden to The Guardian have revealed that the NSA works with American tech giants such as Google, Facebook and Apple to harvest information on users, and that it is collecting huge amounts of data on phone calls placed within the U.S., among many other programs. Pheneger, who spent three decades as a U.S. Army intelligence officer, said Snowden's leaks came as no surprise to him. He outlined in detail how the NSA goes about its business, but he also touched on the use of surveillance cameras to track individuals across entire cities, the government's ability to follow people through their cellphones and the widespread use of drones, which can range in size from a 737 to what he called a "nano-drone." Mike Phenegar chats with a Democratic Club member on Tuesday evening. Photo by Cooper Levey-Baker Luckily, he added, we have the "interesting" But even more problematic than the specif- Fourth Amendment, which protects Ameriics of the programs Pheneger outlined is what cans against "unreasonable searches and seihe called the total lack of serious oversight. zures." He described a system in which the members of Congress most knowledgeable about the The NSA revelations have scrambled tradiNSA's actions are legally barred from discuss- tional party politics in Congress, so bogged ing them, and an executive branch that relies down these days by shortsighted obstrucon "state secrets" loopholes to ward off legal tionism and absurd gamesmanship. Libertarian-minded liberals and conservatives alike scrutiny. have expressed concern over the information "This is a system that is broken," he said, contained in Snowden's leaks. warning attendees to be "damn skeptical" about the federal government's claims about Republican Rep. Justin Amash, from Michigan, last week introduced an amendment in spying. the U.S. House intended to squash the NSA's Even with Snowden's leaks, we still know very collection of American phone records. While little about how the NSA works and how the the amendment was narrowly defeated in a executive branch interprets legislation cover- 217-205 vote, the list of lawmakers supporting national security, such as the 2001 USA ing the measure included some strange bedfelPATRIOT Act, Pheneger argued. "You can't lows. How often do you see liberal firebrand find out what's going on," he said, discuss- Alan Grayson and our Republican Rep. Vern ing how ACLU legal action has been stifled. Buchanan on the same side of a vote?