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"A few days after most federal agencies shut down for the government furlough, the review group designed to see if the National Security Agency violated Americans\u2019 privacy rights has decided to take a breather, too.\nFormer CIA head Michael Morell, one of the panel\u2019s five members, told Politico that though the group was officially deemed essential to the country\u2019s operations, he didn\u2019t feel that was apt.\n\u201C[Our work] is no more important than \u2014 and quite frankly a lot less important \u2014 than a lot of the work being left undone by the government shutdown, both in the intelligence community and outside the intelligence community,\u201D he said Saturday.\nThe panel formed in August, in the wake of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden\u2019s leak of scores of agency documents that detailed spy programs and public outcry that the agency was surveilling American citizens. It\u2019s received substantial criticism for including intelligence insiders \u2014 like Morell. However, despite fears to the contrary, the panel doesn\u2019t report directly to James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, who misled Congress on the NSA\u2019s practices.\nAccording to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), 72% of intelligence employees\u2019 jobs have been put on hold due to the government shutdown. It\u2019s unclear how much of the NSA is currently on hold. According to the agency\u2019s website, it\u2019s currently not responding to Freedom of Information Act requests, nor is it updating its website. When asked which other operations weren\u2019t running, an NSA spokesperson directed the Daily Dot to Clapper\u2019s office. The ODNI didn\u2019t respond the Daily Dot\u2019s multiple inquiries.\nImage: Flickr, Chuck Hagel"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/10/07/nsa-review-panel-furloughed/>