Domestic Surveillance Oversight Act

miladus writes "PCWorld is running a story about the latest effort by the Senate to oversee the FBI's use of anti-terrorist laws and 'excessive secrecy'. Senator P. Leahy (D-Vermont) along with C. Grassley (R-Iowa) and A. Specter (R-PA) are proposing the Domestic Surveillance Oversight Act (pdf file) which will require the FBI and the Department of Justice to tell 'how often they spy on American citizens under powers granted by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Act (FISA) and expanded in the Patriot Act of 2001'. The senators released a report charging the FBI and the DOJ of 'excessive secrecy' and of 'inadequate training with respect to the FISA provision' concerning the balance between privacy and security.
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Comments

Finally

[nemui-chan]

You know, its finally nice to see someone challenging the things trying to be passed through the senate. Things like the Patriot Act, and Patriot Act II. I -LIKE- seeing people saying "Wait, WHY is our government doing this?" Its something that is happening less and less frequently. I don't know about you, but I'm not a terrorist, and I'd STILL like to have my civil liberties in tact after this is all said and done. Things like being able to speak freely in public without fear of being secretly arrested. Things like being able to go to the library to do a report on nucleur missiles without getting reported to the FBI. Things like being able to leave my home and not have to worry about the FBI breaking into my house without a warrant. And most of all things like being able to practice the freedoms that were the reason we broke off into our own country to begin with. nems a.k.a. The Anti Terrorist Freedom Preserving Tree Hugging Hippy Bastard

The Senate? What a joke.

[DarkKnightRadick]

Anything less then the revoking of Patriot Act I and unanimous support for blocking Patriot II (whose powers are outlined in the ACLU's Interested Persons Memo: Section-by-Section Analysis of Justice Department draft "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003," also known as "PATROIT Act II")is (and should be by any self-respecting American) totally and irrevocablly unacceptable.

Of course this will most likely get modded down as troll (whatever) and offtopic (duh, this is directly relating to the article posted if you haven't noticed), but that's okay. I know I'm writing all my congressmen to denounce this peice of legislation. My freedom IS my security. I just wish the rest of the sheep in this country would get the fuck off their lazy asses and realize that.

I for one REFUSE to live in a Soviet or Nazi America, land of the oppressed.

What scares me

[Anonymous Coward]

As a non-American, I am more worried about all the powers the various U.S. authorities have to spy (and arrest and kill...) non-American people. Especially when the XX government seems to take the same attitude towards non-XX people, and the "secret" agnecies of U.S. and XX can make underhand agreements to do each others dirty work.

Once upon a time the government was there to protect its citizens from attacks from other governments - today we ("the people") need protection from the government, and of other governments, and of the government "protecting" us from other governments...

Every journey begins with a single step

[Tyriel]

Guys, i think what we need to realize here is that this is PROGRESS, no matter how you might feel about the patriot act. This applies to acts passed many years before Sept. 11, and keeps ol' Johnny A a little more honest. We need all the help we can get in that regard, and this is help. Those who advocate for radical change all at once are shooting themselves in the foot. Progress happens incrementally.