It’s Time to Shut the NSA’s Backdoor Used to Spy on Americans

Daily Beast ^ | 07.03.14 | Geoffrey R. Stone

[Cheerio]

Just because the initial collection of intelligence is legal doesn’t mean it should be if it catches American citizens’ communications. A bill in Congress would fix that.

On June 20, the House of Representatives passed a defense spending bill with an amendment that would substantially strengthen the privacy protections of American citizens in the context of foreign intelligence surveillance. The amendment, which passed by an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 293-123, should be quickly and enthusiastically approved by the Senate and then signed into law by President Obama.

Complicating matters, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which makes recommendations to Congress about such matters, just issued a deeply disappointing report that does not go as far as the House’s enactment. That report is simply wrong, and should be rejected. Let me explain.

[4rcane]

they could pass a bill to make things illegal, but criminals will simply ignore it

[dforest]

Laws no longer mean anything to the government. They pass laws and disregard them daily. Particularly Obama. he picks and chooses parts of laws he likes and spit out the parts he doesn’t wish to enforce.

[DugwayDuke]

So terrorist A emails terrorist B and CC’s who could be an American citizen...

[OneWingedShark]

Not even that direct.

Given their three hop connection, even you are likely to be considered ‘connected’ to a terrorist.
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2013/07/im-three-hops-from-a-terrorist-and-therefore-probably-in-the-nsas-dragnet-and-you.html

[DugwayDuke]

Not sure you get my point. If terrorist A emails terrorist B and cc’s an American citizen (chosen at random, not a terrorist), then under this legislation, NSA would have to ignore the email since it involves an American.

If terrorist A places a call to terrorist B and announces at the beginning that another person, an american citizen, is also on the line. Can NSA listen in? Not under this legislation. In fact, all the terrorists would have to do is make this announcement even if an American is not involved since NSA could not prove it was not intercepting an American’s communications.