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FISA Court Extends Section 215 Bulk Surveillance For 90 Days
Trailrunner7 notes that the bulk telephone collection program was just extended another 90 days. "The secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has authorized a 90-day extension to the Section 215 bulk telephone collection program used by the National Security Agency, giving the agency through the end of February to run the program in the absence of legislation establishing a new authority.
On Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed that the administration had applied for a 90-day extension to the existing Section 215 authority, and that the FISC had approved the request, extending the authority through Feb. 27.
'The Administration welcomes the opportunity to work with the new Congress to implement the changes the President has called for. Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program, as modified by the changes the President directed in January,' a statement from the Office of the DNI and the Office of the Attorney General said."
On Monday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed that the administration had applied for a 90-day extension to the existing Section 215 authority, and that the FISC had approved the request, extending the authority through Feb. 27.
'The Administration welcomes the opportunity to work with the new Congress to implement the changes the President has called for. Given that legislation has not yet been enacted, and given the importance of maintaining the capabilities of the telephony metadata program, the government has sought a 90-day reauthorization of the existing program, as modified by the changes the President directed in January,' a statement from the Office of the DNI and the Office of the Attorney General said."
Isn't a court supposed to rule on the current law, rather than extending laws that have gone away?
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
And realize they now live in a police state?
What happened to the horror of 'legislating from the bench'?!
This is it.
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Let me clarify, as the two current posts indicate a misunderstanding. Currently, the law authorizing the snooping is set to expire in June 2015. Under that law, NSA must get court approval or any wiretaps, and those approvals can't last longer than 90 days. The court has been approving "spy on everyone" each 90 days.
Obama asked Congress to renew the law rather than letting it expire in June, but change it in a couple of ways:
Make the authorization permanent rather than requiring re-approval every 90 days
Add some smokescreen language to say the dragnet isn't allowed under section 215, it has to be done under a different section.
The Senate voted 58-42 to not extend the law as Obama asked, so currently the snooping must stop by June, when the law authorizing it expires.
Only the current 90-day "warrant" expired, renewing that is standard operating procedure. The big deadline is June, when the whole program will have to stop if Congress doesn't re-authorize it.
Democrats in Congress want to move the program around, so they can say they got rid of the section 215 authorization. Republicans have refused to do that, some like Paul want to let the whole thing expire. Others say the Democrat smokescreen plan only makes it harder to perform legitimate national security activities, without actually doing anything good for privacy.
Once one start using, one needs to continue doing.
The same thing with those kangaroo courts. They will stick to whatever "their legal opinions" are, because the moment you stop all predecessors will be questioned. They have to remember that Nurnberg defense, "we just followed orders" does not work all the times. They KNOW what they are doing and, rest assured, they do not have clean conscience and do sleep well even if they say they do.
Expect this to be election issue. Rand Paul's maximalistic approach will earn a lot of political capital, and Hillary Clinton will look like a big sister from 1984 Apple commercial. Perhaps this thing along will win former Obama's voters.
One would be a fool to believe that anything in substance will change even when Rand Paul will stop renewal, but at least there will be a debate.
> Democrats in Congress want to move the program around, so they can say they got rid of the section 215
> authorization. Republicans have refused to do that, some like Paul want to let the whole thing expire. Others say
> the Democrat smokescreen plan only makes it harder to perform legitimate national security activities, without
> actually doing anything good for privacy.
This is what I have come to expect on matters of personal privacy. Republicans hate your privacy and don't know why you think you should have it... Democrats hate that you might suspect they are the same as the republicans, and really want to implement the same policy while looking like they care about your privacy.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
As long as they can OK this for themselves, in Secret Courts, We, the People are Seriously Fucked.
I saw a major article today about how all the successful Supreme Court Cases are handled by an inner circle of DC Lawyers, who are personal friends of some of the Justices.
It's All Insiders at this point in the government in the parts that matter; the rest are Country Hicks that will do whatever the Fuck they're told. Yes, I mean Congress.
We are headed down a dark road my friends.
It's already Ugly, why do you think so much was left out of the CIA Torture Report, and they're Still Worried it will lead to uprisings?! :)
Note: they haven't said where they expect those to occur...
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
The patriot act was passed under Bush's watch, and is partially what has enabled this mess in the first place. I'm not defending Obama, he officially became a scum bag in my book after he campaigned on the premise that he would get rid the Patriot Act, but renewed it shortly after taking office. My point is, they are both equally responsible, and equally douchey.
Recipient and contents of application:
(1) shall be made toâ"
(A) a judge of the court established by section 1803 (a) of this title; or
(B) a United States Magistrate Judge under chapter 43 of title 28, who is publicly designated by the Chief Justice of the United States to have the power to hear applications and grant orders for the production of tangible things under this section on behalf of a judge of that court; and
(2) shall includeâ" ...
(A) a statement of facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the tangible things sought are relevant to an authorized investigation
What "authorized investigation" can possibly necessitate COLLECTION of EVERYONES phone records?
If you can't answer the question then don't spew bullshit about section 215 red herrings.
Not sure what you're getting at there. But, I will say that I own a hand gun and have a concealed carry permit, so no I don't think it only applies to militias. That said, if it ever came down to it; a million citizens revolting against their government with hand guns and rifles isn't even going to make a dent in armor of a fleet of tanks, jets, drones, long range missiles, lasers, rail guns, and whatever else they have cooking up at DARPA. I have no illusions about it... I'm glad to have the right to do so, but don't pretend that it makes any difference in regards to what was probably the original intent of the second amendment.
In a court of law, decisions are handed down in issues that are contended by TWO SIDES. When fourth amendment violators ask the FISA shysters for a rubber stamp of impunity for their crimes, there's nobody to stand up and argue for the constitution.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
a million citizens revolting against their government with hand guns and rifles isn't even going to make a dent
Don't forget the great lesson of the Soviet debacle: all governments ultimately depend on the consent of the people. When that consent is withdrawn, the government collapses.
The great lesson of Romania is that a government shouldn't count on its armed forces to violently suppress their own people.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
a million citizens revolting against their government with hand guns and rifles isn't even going to make a dent
Don't forget the great lesson of the Soviet debacle: all governments ultimately depend on the consent of the people. When that consent is withdrawn, the government collapses.
The great lesson of Romania is that a government shouldn't count on its armed forces to violently suppress their own people.
-jcr
Quite so. And in both cases the possession of small arms was utterly irrelevant. They played no role at all in the collapse of tyranny. Why do Americans suppose that they are less capable of peaceful overthrow than Russians or Romanians?
Second class citizen of the New Gilded Age
That only applies when the courts do something one of the major political parties dislikes that happens to favor the other major political party. In this case they both want it but don't want the very small blow back. This also provide talking points so that one side can blame the other for not acting thus the court did the right thing further legitimizing this court's existence.
Time to offend someone