At this point in time we have plenty of evidence that the NSA has not been staying within the lines. If nothing else the "parallel construction" collaboration

At this point in time we have plenty of evidence that the NSA has not been staying within the lines. If nothing else the "parallel construction" collaboration with the DEA shows that the line between the NSA and the corrupt sharing of information with agencies that are not entitled to collected intelligence is happening. The executive branch has come up with a number of ways to shield programs of questionable legality from legal scrutiny outside of it's own chosen framework of understanding... So the obvious answer is that we need an independent congressional commission, preferably headed by Ron Wyden; to provide a complete accounting of what has been happening in the past decade. Such commission would need the power to unilaterally declassify items of concern and would be tasked with coming up with a framework of oversight and accountability that would enable legal and necessary signals intelligence functions while preserving the constitutional rights of American citizens and the privacy concerns of rest of the world. Secret laws, secret courts; wholesale and indiscriminate data collection paired with indefinite retention of all data as potentially culpable are not reflective of American values.