Die Whistleblowerin Chelsea Manning, die derzeit eine 35-jährige Haftstrafe für die Weitergabe geheimer Informationen an WikiLeaks absitzt, hat gestern einen Gesetzentwurf (PDF) veröffentlicht – sie fordert darin die Abschaffung des United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, kurz FISC. Die geheimen Praktiken dieses Bundesgerichts, das die Überwachungsaktionen der nationalen Auslandsgeheimdienste regelt, steht schon seit Jahren in der Kritik, die Grenzen der Überwachung nicht zu stärken, sondern vielmehr zugunsten der Geheimdienste zu verschieben.

In einer Kolumne bei The Guardian fordert Chelsea Manning nun die Abschaffung des Gerichts. Dies sei ein erster, grundlegender Schritt für eine Überwachungsreform.

Those courts were established nearly 40 years ago, in response to allegations that the intelligence community was abusing their power in order to spy on US citizens […] The result then was new procedures and the creation of a new court system – the Foreign Intelligence Court – to process surveillance requests by the government in secret. Unfortunately, it also created a new host of oversight problems: only a similar secret court process can review the actions taken by the courts, leaving many in Congress and all of the American public in the dark. Some of these systemic problems have finally been examined by non-Fisa courts in the last two years – most notably by the US court of appeals for the second circuit early in 2015. However, because of the continuing secrecy of the Fisa courts, any ruling by a court of appeals was only a symbolic gesture. The USA Freedom Act, for all that it’s trumpeted as the solution to some of the excessed, does little to institute real oversight over the Fisa courts.

Stattdessen sollen Amts- und Berufungsgerichte über Überwachungsanfragen entscheiden.

In spirit and in law, the entire surveillance review system would end up where it probably should have started in the first place after the Church Committee: in a tried and true, real and historically viable court system. And the American people could have more faith that our judicial branch wasn’t completely beholden to structures put into place by the executive and legislative branches to limit accountability.

Auf Medium beschreibt Manning, wie sie den Entwurf im Sommer in ihrer Zelle im Militärgefängnis Fort Leavenworth verfasst hat.

It took me all summer to create this 139 page monster — and it’s far from perfect. The important thing is: there are alternatives. It’s too easy to shoot from the hip and criticize policy these days — as many people actually do. But, it takes grit, determination, hard work, painstaking research to create a meaningful alternative. I can do it, then you can too.

Fight for the Future initiierte eine Online-Petition, in der Abgeordnete aufgefordert werden, den Gesetzesentwurf zu lesen und bei ihren Abstimmungen zur Kenntnis zu nehmen.