Of course it is not independent. Jesus. It is a panel run by the White House.
You may as well run a story with the headline “Critics Unsure of the Independence of Medical Research on Tobacco Sponsored by Philip-Morris.”
Doubts raised about independence of White House panel on NSA privacy | McClatchy
Four of the panel’s five members have direct ties to the executive branch and its intelligence gathering apparatus. Privacy and open government advocates say they have little expectation that the panel will be aggressive in criticizing the National Security Agency’s collection of Internet…
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Anticopyright.