VIDEO: Surveillance, Secrecy, and Government Accountability

Last month, ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer participated in a panel convened by Open Society Foundations in New York City entitled National Security Secrecy and Surveillance: Defending the Public’s Right to Know.

The conversation, which was moderated by secrecy expert Steven Aftergood, a Senior Research Analyst at the Federation of American Scientists, focused on the high level of secrecy and minimal oversight which currently surrounds many national security operations. Topics discussed ranged from government surveillance of Americans’ international communications under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to the U.S. government’s targeted killing program.

In addition to Jameel, panelists included: National Security Agency whistleblower Thomas Drake; Department of Justice whistleblower Jesselyn Radack, who now serves as National Security & Human Rights Director at the Government Accountability Project; and Tim Shorrock, an investigative journalist and the author of Spies For Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing.

The event is also available to watch in full on OSF’s website.