Probably at this point, we
should have expected no less. President Barack Obama promised a
panel of outside experts to review NSA procedures with its
surveillance programs.

It turns out, his definition of “outside” is people who used to
be part of his administration but aren’t anymore. From
ABC News:

A group of veteran security experts and former White House
officials has been selected to conduct a full review of U.S.
surveillance programs and other secret government efforts disclosed
over recent months, ABC News has learned.

The recent acting head of the CIA, Michael Morell, will be among
what President Obama called a “high-level group of outside experts”
scrutinizing the controversial programs.

Joining Morell on the panel will be former White House officials
Richard Clarke, Cass Sunstein and Peter Swire. An announcement is
expected Thursday, a source with knowledge of the matter told ABC
News’ Jon Karl.

The group will “consider how we can maintain the trust of the
people [and] how we can make sure that there absolutely is no
abuse,” President Obama said two weeks ago when announcing the
group’s formation, without identifying who would be on the
panel.

Susnstein should be a recognizable name for his support of
paternalistic, nanny state government “nudging.” His inclusion
should worry us that the administration sees all of this as a
marketing and messaging issue and not a transparency and Fourth
Amendment problem. Swire, though, has a history
in tech privacy issues and government and was saying the NSA’s
wiretap program was illegal
back in 2006.

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