The country and the world have been holding at various degrees of outrage ever since Edward Snowden released documents implicating the NSA in nefarious spying practices. President Barack Obama responded by forming an independent review board to see if any laws were broken. Unfortunately, it turns out that the board isn’t as independent as one might hope.

Stung by public unease about new details of spying by the National Security Agency, President Barack Obama selected a panel of advisers he described as independent experts to scrutinize the NSA’s surveillance programs to be sure they weren’t violating civil liberties and to restore Americans’ trust.

But with just weeks remaining before its first deadline to report back to the White House, the review panel has effectively been operating as an arm of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the NSA and all other U.S. spy efforts.