Grand Coalition of Critics

Since the revelation that the National Security Agency is engaged in widespread telephone and Internet monitoring with its PRISM program, an unlikely coalition is bringing pressure to bear on the Obama administration. Leading communications giants are demanding that the United States release them from secrecy obligations since it has become common knowledge that the companies are the source of data passed along to the government. But critical questions are also being posed by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, as well as across the spectrum of civil rights groups. A recent survey, however, shows no particular public outrage because of the revelations.

On Tuesday, Google sent a mail request to FBI Director Robert Mueller and Attorney General Holder at the Justice Department. In the meantime, Facebook and Microsoft have followed suit. Facebook says they made an urgent request for permission to publicize the scope of the NSA requirements so that Facebook users worldwide can be apprised of them and will have a complete picture of the situation. This, along with the wording of the Microsoft request, suggests that the companies are clearly worried about their corporate images.

Mozilla, developer of the Firefox browser, began among other things a campaign on the news platform Reddit called “Stop Watching Us” and began collecting signatures for an open letter addressed to the U.S. Congress. By Wednesday evening, it had been joined by around 50 organizations and a number of companies and individuals.

Civil Rights Activists Plan to Sue the NSA

The largest of the U.S. civil rights organizations, the American Civil Liberties Union, also announced its intention to file a lawsuit against the NSA. As a Verizon customer, one of the telecommunications companies through which the NSA program was discovered, the chances of a successful suit are considered good.

According to The Washington Post, the Senate Intelligence Committee has also requested that the NSA make details of the PRISM program at least partially public. Committee chairwoman Senator Dianne Feinstein has accordingly requested that the NSA be more open with the public about the reasons for monitoring. The NSA briefed the committee on Tuesday. Eight senators, Democrats and Republicans, have already introduced a template for use in releasing records to the appropriate legal channels. On Tuesday evening local time the agencies had briefed Congress on the NSA monitoring program.

Germany Also Seeks Clarification

German Minister of Justice Sabine Leitheusser-Schnarrenberger of the Free Democratic Party contacted Holder requesting details of the PRISM program’s operations and the legal basis for it. Liberals within the coalition have long opposed laws permitting data retention, which—in concordance with the European Union—regulates unreasonable storage of communications between German citizens.

On Wednesday afternoon, a special meeting of the parliamentary control committee will look into the spying activities. Committee chairman Thomas Oppermann of the Social Democratic Party says they want clarification, including the extent of what the German government knows about the PRISM program. Domestic policy spokesman for the SPD, Michael Hartmann, has demanded more transparency from the German government, saying that merely providing a list of questions submitted is insufficient. The affair, he says, once again demonstrates that the United States has lost any and all sense of proportion since 9/11.