sharemywin, I don't get it, the section on collection (first subsection at the top) says: "Collection, as a function of intelligence, appears straightforward,

sharemywin, I don't get it, the section on collection (first subsection at the top) says: "Collection, as a function of intelligence, appears straightforward, and its necessity is not seriously challenged." This seems like nonsense. Isn't the fourth amendment obviously a challenge to it: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized" ? do you personally believe that the benefits listed on the first page you linked ( https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/int006.html https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/int006.html ), namely covert action, counterintelligence, support to American diplomacy, support to monitoring of treaties and other agreements, support to military operations, support to defense planning, economic intelligence, counterterrorism, counternarcotics, counterproliferation, countering international organized crime, support to criminal justice and regulatory agencies, collecting and analyzing environmental information, collecting and analyzing information on world health problems, and information warfare, outweigh the downsides to the intrusion of privacy without a judge particularly describing the place to be searched in each case, and the persons or things to be seized? What makes you believe that the benefits outweigh the downsides? If the people looking at the above weren't looking at it, they could be doing something more productive with their lives even witout an intelligence community. 2. regarding your second link, I checked it out, it says "Please note, the CLPT Officer’s statutory duty extends only to the administration of programs and operations of the ODNI" which is just a small part of the intelligence community as a whole. it's like the "white house" of the intelligence community. a complaint to the white house wouldn't fix something wrong with the senate, and likewise a complaint to ODNI couldn't fix anything wrong in the intelligence community if "the CLPT Officer’s statutory duty extends only to the administration of programs and operations of the ODNI." It's like if I complained to the President about a local politician. What's the President supposed to do about it? In the case of IC it seems there is no actual legitimate oversight. And unlike the Senate, they're not elected. So why pay for it? These people could do something else with their lives other than snoop on people.