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House Votes To End Spy Agencies' Bulk Collection of Phone Data
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from a story at Reuters that gives a rare bit of good news for the Fourth Amendment: The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill on Wednesday that would end spy agencies' bulk collection of Americans' telephone data, setting up a potential showdown with the U.S. Senate over the program, which expires on June 1. The House voted 338-88 for the USA Freedom Act, which would end the bulk collection and instead give intelligence agencies access to telephone data and other records only when a court finds there is reasonable suspicion about a link to international terrorism.
They've invested billions if not trillions in the surveillance networks and infrastructure.
Is anyone going to really believe it's all been mothballed at the stroke of a pen?
I won't.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
So Snowden is going to be pardoned by Obama now, right? Because he's been proven to be correct time and time again, and congress continues to validate his position by voting to approve these counter-spy bills.
It is very very weird when even the government of a people can't tell the spy agency of the government to stop.
Top NSA officials held "closed door" briefings with senators yesterday to scare them into voting to continue their massive illegal spying program.
It's a sham "reform" bill that extends the controversial surveillance state provisions of the "Patriot" Act set to expire June 1.
The reason you are hearing this "Wonderful News" is because the CIA issues press releases to all of their CIA assets (news agencies like NBC, FOX, CBS, CNN, et all) to make sure they highlight 1 good thing they are attempting to remove from their illegal spying programs - the unfettered access to record any phone conversation whenever they like without a warrant.
Except nothing else has changed. Top NSA officials are making sure this gets passed quick by threats, intimidation, lies, everything they can to keep their illegal spying powers in tact. The bill is still the patriot act, except they named it the "freedom act" when it really the "slavery act".
Now back to your favorite news networks reporting the same exact story verbatim so you can get your mind control like good little slaves.
I'm reading... but it is like reading a patch file for a language I don't understand, when I don't have the file that is being patched.
(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking “an order” and inserting “an order or emergency production”; and
That might as well be:
Go to line 57 and insert "else break;"
It looks like they are trying to say that, in order to bulk collect data, they must have a specific search they are running that involves a specific telephone line. See SEC 201.
Can someone define "tangible things" as in "SEC. 103. Prohibition on bulk collection of tangible things" or "“(i) Emergency authority for production of tangible things."
388 to 88. That's pretty much a consensus that crosses party lines. I'd say it's a dead program.
I'd say it's a dead program.
No, it's a 'dark' program.... again... kinda-sorta..
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
They're not really trying, and they don't really want to. It's a pacification thing.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Harper's government, helped by the Liberals, forcefully pushes bill C-51 to make such government spying legal.
Want to bet a lot of U.S.A. communications are going to go through Canada's carriers before reaching their destination? (even within the U.S.A.)
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meh. I say that the section 215 of the patriot act as written is not necessarily a violation of the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments. it authorizes the collection of business records relevant to a terrorist investigation. it only became unconstitutional when "business records" was interpreted to mean "anything we want" and "investigation" was interpreted to mean "eternal vigilance." Section 215 could very easily be implemented in a way that is constitutionally sound, and thus the provision itself is not unconstitutional.
Given the options on the table i would take the improvement. this legislative improvement, along with a bitch-slapped NSA who would stay within the intent of the law, is much better than what we had before.
Last I checked, a court found that no law existed that allowed bulk collections. Not even the Patriot Act: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05...
This is a law that makes something illegal that was already illegal. More congressional theater.
Wake me up when the people who broke the law start seeing some time. Let me know when the guy who exposed this illegal activity is allowed back into the country with his liberty intact.
Revolution is the opium of the intellectuals.
Also -- why the focus on a tiny subset (just Metadata) of a dying communiation system (phone).
It'd be far more interesting if they'd do something about far more invasive (not just metadata, but content too) that's being captured from (presumably) all internet traffic (skype, email, etc).
Why in the world would you think the NSA is going to actually follow the law? They've not exactly given any signs they give a shit about doing so lately. Rather the opposite, in fact.
As long as no one, except whistle-blowers, are getting any jail time, don't expect any actual change. They'll just rename the programs and do a better job of hiding what they're doing.
Actually, that's the entire point of a warrant: it's the state's written grant of immunity for people to do things that would otherwise be illegal. Ordinarily, it's illegal for anyone to forcibly restrain you and hold you against your will. But with an arrest warrant, it's legal.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.