Posted on 01/20/2015 6:42:56 AM PST by GIdget2004
Republicans have a choice to make.
In five months, key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire, potentially eliminating spying programs that intelligence officials say are critical to keeping the nation safe from terrorists.
The battle over what changes should be made to that law — and whether it should be reauthorized at all — is likely to be an early test of Republican leaders’ ability to keep their party unified while controlling both chambers of Congress. “I think there is going to be a very inconvenient and strong difference of opinion within the Republican Party about how to proceed here,” said Kevin Bankston, policy director at the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute and a supporter of reforms to the spying law.
“This is why we strongly recommended that we pass [reforms] last year, to avoid a significant interparty split,” he added.
On June 1, key portions of the Patriot Act that update the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) are set to expire. Among them is Section 215, which the National Security Agency (NSA) has used to authorize the collection of bulk records about millions of U.S. citizens’ phone calls.
The program — which collects only “metadata” about people’s calls, such as which numbers were dialed and when, and not actual conversations — was the most controversial part of Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA, and has become the prime focus of privacy advocates on Capitol Hill.
After failing to get NSA reform legislation to President Obama’s desk last year, advocates are eyeing the upcoming summer deadline as their best chance to significantly change the practices of the spy agency.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
They will not be able to place it back in the box. Spying is here to stay folks. Just like that, our freedoms, liberty, anonymity have vanished. Pandora’s box is an artifact in Greek mythology, taken from the myth of Pandora’s creation in Hesiod’s Works and Days.[1] The “box” was actually a large jar (πίθος pithos)[2] given to Pandora (Πανδώρα, “all-gifted”, “all-giving”),[3] which contained all the evils of the world. Today the phrase “to open Pandora’s box” means to perform an action that may seem small or innocent, but that turns out to have severely detrimental and far-reaching consequences.
Another thing that has been going on for years is proxy spying. Things that the government might be verboten to do in its own land (while it still cared about such niceties, at least) it will invite a foreign country to do. So Sweden might rat on you to Uncle Sam, etc.
Yet, the Commander in Chief, the head MFWIC and his Administration minions won't even deign to say the word "terrorist." You can't make any of them even utter the word, even under the most dire
The FISA, this Patriot Act, the DHS and the TSA have been horribly abused and misused by a number of ICs. I am all for abolishing it all, frankly.
there is a very easy fix for all.
1. record the data but have it encrypted
2. restore court order process to decrypt
that way your info is secure until such time as you are part of an investigation. now all you have to do is ensure the court is not a rubber stamp OR so restrictive noting gets done.
it will stop all the random access of personal information.
just my opinion.
Let the sections of the Patriot Act lapse. Giving up freedom for security is not an American ideal and has just promoted the development of a militarize police state.
I agree with you completely. If you want a truly free society you may have to accept a little higher danger level. I’m willing to do that. Besides if you don’t think the snoops know who’s who in the zoo and who they need to be keeping an eye on you are naïve. They don’t need to keep the phone numbers of me and you and the average Joe just because they have the technology to do it.
Dismantle the NSA, CIA, KGB, MI6, FBI, EPA, DOE, DOT, NASA, ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, NYT, USANG, AEC, ASCPA, AFL-CIO, NAACP, SEIU, CPA, and LAT.
As am I.
Add me to the list.
Why the conundrum, GOP? Isn’t the War on Terror officially over, per the Won?
So, like all Laws that have out-lived their usefulness (not saying this one WAS useful), it should die off, no?
You left out the SPLC.
scrap the entire program.
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