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Trump Signs Surveillance Extension Into Law (thehill.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the invasion-of-privacy dept.

President Trump took to Twitter this afternoon to announce that he has signed a six-year renewal of a powerful government surveillance tool. "Just signed 702 Bill to authorize foreign intelligence collection," Trump tweeted. "This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!" The Hill reports: Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which the Senate voted to renew with a few small tweaks this week, allows the U.S. to spy on foreigners overseas. The intelligence community says the program is a critical tool in identifying and disrupting terror plots. But the broader surveillance law, which governs U.S. spying on foreigners, has become politically entangled with the controversy over the federal investigation into Trump's campaign and Russia. Some Republicans have claimed that the FBI inappropriately obtained a politically motivated FISA warrant to spy on Trump during the transition and on Friday, Capitol Hill was consumed with speculation about a four-page memo produced by House Intelligence Committee Republicans that some GOP lawmakers hinted contained evidence of such wrongdoing.

26 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah... by Lunix+Nutcase · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Just signed 702 Bill to authorize foreign intelligence collection," Trump tweeted. "This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election.

    Are people really dumb enough to believe this? It’s just as bad as it ever was and still allows warrantless surveillance with pretty much non-existent oversight.

    1. Re:Yeah... by nwaack · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, because the other options were sooooo amazing. This is what happens when the presidential candidates are so bad that people really are voting for a giant douche or a turd sandwich. The "Trump voters are stupid" thing is played out, tired and unoriginal.

    2. Re:Yeah... by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Probably not, but I think a lot of people are just numb to it by now, and to be honest there's no chance that Clinton wouldn't have extended this either so we were getting this shit sandwich regardless of who was elected.

    3. Re:Yeah... by slew · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Just signed 702 Bill to authorize foreign intelligence collection," Trump tweeted. "This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election.

      Are people really dumb enough to believe this? It’s just as bad as it ever was and still allows warrantless surveillance with pretty much non-existent oversight.

      Of course it isn't the same. It may be not quite as bad, though according to this summary... But if you are against warrant-less intelligence collection in general, well, it's nothing new in that area, so from that point of view, it is basically the same.

    4. Re:Yeah... by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      AC the need for collect it all domestically goes back to Project SHAMROCK, Project MINARET.
      Project SHAMROCK https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Project MINARET https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      The only time the security services got questioned over their nation wide illegal domestic collection was doing the 1970's Church Committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      The result was the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/....

      Want to collect it all domestically?
      Show a domestic 4, 5, 6, 7 hops to anything "Foreign" and keep on collecting everything domestically every decade. Collect it all never stopped, it just needed a rubber stamp from a court that has to be presented with anything "Foreign" and then the court won't consider saying no.
      Big brands too. PRISM (surveillance program) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
      Color of law makes it all domestically legal for the collectors.
      As many hops as needed to any "Foreign" communication and the Fourth Amendment not longer protects US citizens.
      Still having domestic legal problems for collect it all? Just go full Project MINARET again https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... and ask another 5 eye nation for some domestic support in the USA.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    5. Re: Yeah... by retchdog · · Score: 1

      this comes down to whether you believed the car dealer with a suicide vest and blasting caps when he swore that he didn't have any dynamite, and none of his cars had any dynamite on them, and in fact he had never seen dynamite and, oh, also doesn't even know what the word "dynamite" means!

      if you actually believed him, you're an irredeemable fucktard. otoh, if you didn't believe him but just wanted to see what would happen, that's a relatively respectable position.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    6. Re:Yeah... by drago177 · · Score: 2

      What legal, practical, reasonable, and achievable action could an individual voter have taken in order to cause a highly desirable additional candidate to emerge?

      I think I agree with you - there is no answer here, we're stuck with 2 parties for now. What should we do? I always say the same thing - vote for the better of the 2. Slowly but surely, you'll push both parties in the right direction. Sorry, but there is no magic wand. Politics has always been messy, will always be messy. People keep acting like we've never seen such craziness before, but politicians used to fight with duels - guns instead of words. And the words were just as harsh back then too.

      I always vote for the best position in the primary, then the best position in the general (usually these are different answers). Try to research individual local candidates. Just do the best research you can. But smart people should not give up. Too many are voting for the guy they'd like to have a beer with or entertains their fantasies with soundbites. Don't leave the decision up to them.

    7. Re:Yeah... by cyn1c77 · · Score: 1

      Just signed 702 Bill to authorize foreign intelligence collection," Trump tweeted. "This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election.

      Are people really dumb enough to believe this? It’s just as bad as it ever was and still allows warrantless surveillance with pretty much non-existent oversight.

      But it's NOT the same! It's worse.

    8. Re:Yeah... by george14215 · · Score: 1

      fact: Trump is a pathological liar

    9. Re:Yeah... by drago177 · · Score: 1

      I forgot to mention regularly support and donate to bipartisan causes trying to reduce money in politics (example). If I found a cause that tried to get rid of Gerrymandering, I'd support that too. I haven't found a sexy quick fix for these two problems, but if it were easy it would have been done already.

  2. Surveillance Extension? by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 1

    UNINSTALL!

    --
    Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
  3. Re:TRUMP 2021!!! by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    ayup. They can vote for him in 2019 and 2021. I support that.

  4. Re:Trump, as dumb as his supporters by MightyYar · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    About as well as Pelosi voting to grant the supposedly evil Trump additional powers. But no, the parties are very different.

    --
    W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  5. Re:Trump, as dumb as his supporters by MightyMartian · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    I love how the Republicans are trying to have it both ways. "OMG, there's FISA abuse and thus Trump is totally innocent of any collusion with the Russians... Oh yeah, and we just extended the whole Bush-era surveillance apparatus!"

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  6. Re:Simultaneous to claiming its use to abuse him.. by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

    Duh, and it will be used against all non-incumbent/appointed successor presidential candidates from now until it is revoked.

    The only other option is a bunch of feds and Hillary campaign workers (same people) go to prison, even then...

    --
    John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  7. I think about our water by k6mfw · · Score: 1

    sources going Flint because our leaders more concerned about terrorism.

    --
    mfwright@batnet.com
  8. Re:Oh FFS STFU, Trump! by sexconker · · Score: 1

    QQ

  9. Re:Trump, as dumb as his supporters by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    and thus Trump is totally innocent of any collusion with the Russians

    You're being sarcastic, but the fact that many of the Dems that have been screaming the loudest that Trump is a Putin Puppet just voted to give him god-like surveillance powers. Which means they either want Putin to be able to spy on Americans, or they've been completely and utterly full of shit on Russiagate from the beginning.

    Pick one.

  10. Re: Protip by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    Procaveat: *everyone* is 5 hops from a spy or mobster.

  11. Re: Oh FFS STFU, Trump! by Reverend+Green · · Score: 1

    Does the NGO really pay you for this kind of shoddy lazy trolling work? Put some effort into it, son!

  12. Re:Just like Obama by darthsilun · · Score: 1

    And the Shrub before him. If you're a conspiracy theorist you can even claim W let the WTC attacks happen just so he could get this (and a whole lot of other things.)

  13. Wow, surprise. by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

    tRump LOVES government spying...on everyone but himself and his mob allies

  14. Re:Just like Obama by AutodidactLabrat · · Score: 1

    If you're a conspiracy theorist you can even claim W let the WTC attacks happen

    I don't need to be a conspiracy theorist.
    I have 43's own word on that.

  15. Re:Trump, as dumb as his supporters by MightyMartian · · Score: 1

    Maybe the real problem here is that when it comes to national security, it isn't really Republicans versus Democrats, but rather Hawks versus Doves. When it comes to the three letter agencies, the Hawks aren't really interested in liberal versus conservative, but rather, interested in making those agencies as powerful and emboldened as possible.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  16. Re:Just like Obama by Karmashock · · Score: 1

    There's no conspiracy... Bush passed it... Obama renewed it throughout his administration and now Trump is doing the same thing.

    Its the status quo now.

    --
    I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
  17. Re:Trump, as dumb as his supporters by Uberbah · · Score: 1

    Maybe the real problem here is that when it comes to national security, it isn't really Republicans versus Democrats, but rather Hawks versus Doves.

    Not much of a contest. Even Bernie Sanders said he would have continued the drone murder program, and has voted to support Israel when they commence their biannual slaughter of a few thousand Palestinians.