Can someone enlighten me about the FISA court? If the members of the FISA determine they were given bogus information, do they have any recourse to take action against those who presented the sworn testimony? Who the hell is on the FISA court and who appointed them? How long in their tenure on the court?
The FISA Court is a three member group of the eleven appointed members mentioned in the link. While it was originally intended to assist collection of information on foreign agents, it has morphed into a free pass for the NSA and the FBI to do anything they please. The WSJ article mentions that of over 18,000 requests received for surveillance they have rejected a grand total of ......4. Most are Clinton appointees sitting on district or appellate courts and the most chilling part of the whole thing is....they are without any oversight. None. Not the US Congress or even the Supreme Court.
They have developed their own secret set of procedures governing their actions and the uses which the law enforcement and Federal employees are (supposedly) governed by. They have evolved a whole new set of justifications to circumvent the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution.
Congress brought them to life through enabling legislation and to be honest the best and bravest thing to do with the FISA Court would be to dis-enable it ....completely. The NSA can monitor foreign agents through the Executive Branch and be subject to oversight. The FBI should be concerned with domestic crimes, make use of existing Federal Courts which are subject to review and quit their abuse of civil liberties of US citizens by using this invitation to circumvent the law and Constitutional guarantees.
Another poster mentioned that someone had to sign and take an oath on the FISA application. I seriously doubt that person's name will ever come to light and we the public will never see it. The rules governing the FISA Court procedures are so black that the FBI or NSA is probably not required to provide that information. It may implicate wrong doing undoubtedly but they will shield themselves from prosecution by using that enabling legislation as amended and modified along the way. There is no oversight of the FISA Court system and it should be done away with ...with great prejudice.