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US Senators Concerned With Surveillance Bill "Loophole"

Posted by samzenpus on from the lets-have-a-look dept.

zer0point writes "The law lets U.S. agencies monitor the communications of foreigners outside the U.S. But two senators are questioning whether a loophole allows the storage and search of messages from Americans that are picked up inadvertently while foreigners are being monitored. The intelligence community has repeatedly said it takes steps to minimize the data collected on Americans. Among the senators’ concerns: that the administration hasn’t been able to estimate how many people in the U.S. have had their information reviewed under the program."

3 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. Hasn't been able to? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I suspect the truth is "hasn't been willing to".

    People have been willing to ignore these sorts of things since they can at least pretend it's probably doesn't involve their own information. If the truth came out, and the government admitted it was electronically sifting through virtually all internal US communications... I suspect people would start to get riled up over it.

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    1. Re:Hasn't been able to? by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It is the natural order of things for people in charge to want MORE power, not less. They are not about to give-up the ability to record Americans conversations. In fact the current government is stone-walling Congress not just on this issue (how many messages were caught "accidentally"), but also the gun-running program into Mexico.

      Congressman: "I have an email here that says you were aware of the program. It's addressed to you."
      Holder: "That refers to the previous Wide Receiver program under Bush."
      Congressman: "Uh no, the email says right here, and I quote, 'Fast&Furious'. That would be under President Obama's and your watch."
      Holder: "The email is wrong. It was Bush." :-o

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  2. Ron Wyden by NoKaOi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    When I clicked on the article I was wholly unsurprised to find Ron Wyden was one of the senators. Every time there's something in the news about a bit of sanity coming from a senator, it seems to have Ron Wyden's name. It's encouraging that there's a senator like that out there, but it's discouraging that it's only 1% of them. I wish we could get one or two of those for my state.