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Civil Liberties Protection Officer Analysis

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Alexander W. Joel is the civil liberties protection officer for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The job of a civil liberties protection officer is to work with the government's various intelligence and security agencies to ensure Americans' civil liberties and privacy rights are protected. That officer works with a large team of professionals to make sure that US intelligence-gathering and surveillance activities are constitutional and do not violate any laws. There are several layers of oversight for various activities, ranging from laws and agency regulations to oversight boards, congressional committees, and special courts, such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Court. These bodies are all charged with ensuring the legality of security programs, and protecting civil liberties and privacy is a responsibility that everyone who works in the intelligence community takes very seriously.
Many Americans probably don't know that there is a senior official whose job by law is to help ensure that civil liberties and privacy protections are built into intelligence programs. I am that official—the "Civil Liberties Protection Officer." I engage with the director of national intelligence and other intelligence officials to oversee and guide intelligence activities.

I …show more content…
In my experience, intelligence professionals—and those overseeing them—are profoundly committed to the oath they take to support and defend the Constitution. People inside government have questions and concerns just like everyone else. It's my job to raise civil liberties and privacy issues about intelligence activities, and I do. If intelligence personnel have legal or civil liberties concerns, they can raise them in secure ways, including by contacting my office, offices of inspector general, or the congressional oversight committees. Under law, they are protected from reprisal if they

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