The Intelligence committees and the FISA Court need to be overhauled, to start with. Clearly there's not enough/proper oversight of the agency.
I don't know how they do it now, but the Intelligence committees should also brief the rest of Congress at least twice a year, and I think they should be allowed by explicit laws to declassify anything they want in that briefing. No approval from the White House or anyone else needed. They are, after all, the ones that are supposedly in charge with oversight of the intelligence community.
So next time someone like Ron Wyden knows the agency is lying to the public, he should be able to tell the rest of the Congress in the briefing, all by himself (he shouldn't need approval from the rest of the committee), and it should be defined in laws that he's allowed to do that, just so there's no confusion, and no fear of repercussion.
The thing is that they already have the framework to do this. A senator is immune from prosecution for anything state on the floor of the senate. If Wyden is on the senate floor, he could read off the nuclear launch codes and there's not a damn thing that the executive can do about it. Furthermore, the senate has closed sessions. They had one just a couple of years ago for the START treaty. A senator could take the floor, tell the rest of the senate about any classified material they like, and the information isn't released to the public unless the Senate votes to remove the injunction of secrecy, so the information remains secure. Even if the injunction is removed, the senator is still protected by some fairly strict constitutional privilege.
I know about that, but I'm not sure that they are sure they could do something like that and get away with it. Couldn't they be accused of treason or something, and have their immunity revoked?
That's why I'm saying that it should be explicitly mentioned in the law that a Senator can do this in Congress, during that Senate briefing. It shouldn't be some vague power that states Senators can do a lot of stuff without fear of repercussion.
Actually I'd bet good money if a senator basically starting reading the details of NSA drag net plan on the senate floor they'd be prosecuted by some court for aiding terrorism, or not being American enough.
I believe they can have a senate session in a more secure location if it becomes necessary. More worrying is what happens when you now have 535 publicity-seeking people knowing about it. See AnimalMuppet's comment upthread, which I think sums the situation up pretty well.
I don't know how they do it now, but the Intelligence committees should also brief the rest of Congress at least twice a year, and I think they should be allowed by explicit laws to declassify anything they want in that briefing. No approval from the White House or anyone else needed. They are, after all, the ones that are supposedly in charge with oversight of the intelligence community.
So next time someone like Ron Wyden knows the agency is lying to the public, he should be able to tell the rest of the Congress in the briefing, all by himself (he shouldn't need approval from the rest of the committee), and it should be defined in laws that he's allowed to do that, just so there's no confusion, and no fear of repercussion.