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White House Supports Renewal of Spy Law Without Reforms (reuters.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the nothing-to-see-here dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: The Trump administration does not want to reform an internet surveillance law to address privacy concerns, a White House official told Reuters on Wednesday, saying it is needed to protect national security. The announcement could put President Donald Trump on a collision course with Congress, where some Republicans and Democrats have advocated curtailing the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, parts of which are due to expire at the end of the year. The FISA law has been criticized by privacy and civil liberties advocates as allowing broad, intrusive spying. It gained renewed attention following the 2013 disclosures by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that the agency carried out widespread monitoring of emails and other electronic communications. Portions of the law, including a provision known as Section 702, will expire on Dec. 31 unless Congress reauthorizes them. Section 702 enables two internet surveillance programs called Prism and Upstream, classified details of which were revealed by Snowden. Democratic and Republican lawmakers have said reforms to Section 702 are needed, in part to ensure the privacy protections on Americans are not violated. The U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee met Wednesday to discuss possible changes to the law.

7 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. But Trump is the Emperor by fredrated · · Score: 1, Insightful

    so Congress should just give him anything he wants!

    1. Re:But Trump is the Emperor by the_Bionic_lemming · · Score: 2, Insightful

      It's unfortunate that they are going to just let this be renewed, it was bad enough under Bush, but at least they are not expanding it like Obama did.

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      _ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
    2. Re:But Trump is the Emperor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Blaming Twitler, or more likely, President Bannon, is not disingenuous. I almost don't care who wrote it originally, or who signed it. What matters is that it's being renewed now – just as it was about to sunset. The decision to renew it is his, not Kennedy's or Carter's. Do we need it now? Why exactly?

      I don't know, but maybe if we remind the Conservitards that it was a Dem idea, they'll poo poo it solely on that basis.

    3. Re:But Trump is the Emperor by GrumpySteen · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's unfortunate that they are going to just let this be renewed, it was bad enough under Bush, but at least we haven't found out that they're expanding it like Obama did.

      FTFY

      There are still 10 months left in the year for them to decide that Trump deserves even wider surveillance powers to prevent imaginary attacks like the Bowling Green massacre.

  2. Re:Just like the last Administration by halivar · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's silly. Alright, I don't like where America is heading, but I grew up a couple miles from the Berlin Wall, and I can tell you that what I saw when I looked out over it looked nothing remotely like America. We do not know fear or hopelessness the way East Germans did. This kind of hysterical false equivalency does not help the cause because it makes pro-privacy look alarmist. We are on a bad trajectory, that's enough to argue from.

  3. In other words... by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Trump is a slimy politician just like all the Career politicians.

    Not one of them give a flying fuck about the constitution.

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    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
  4. Re:Obama was for FISA. Trump's just an idiot. by Tokolosh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss.

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    Prove anything by multiplying Huge Number times Tiny Number