Image Source: yournewswire.com
Posted on 05/26/2016 9:46:08 AM PDT by Swordmaker
A new Senate bill would let the FBI and other law enforcement agencies access the contents of any US citizen’s email without a court order during investigations. Instead, the FBI would need just a National Security Letter, which would force companies to provide email access to the agency without alerting the person who’s being investigated. The FBI can already access phone records without a court order, but that law doesn’t apply to email conversations.
The Senate Intelligence Committee approved the 2017 Intelligence Authorization Act on Tuesday, CNET reports. The bill will head to the full Senate now that it has passed the committee.
“The threats facing our nation continue to grow and this year’s legislation provides the Intelligence Community the resourcing and authorities it needs to keep America safe,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr said in a statement.
Vice Chairman Dianne Feinstein added, “The threat of terrorism remains high, so it’s vital that we provide intelligence agencies with all the resources they need to prevent attacks both at home and abroad.”
Burr and Feinstein recently proposed an encryption backdoor law that received plenty of criticism.
Fortunately, not all the senators on the committee agree. “This bill takes a hatchet to important protections for Americans’ liberty,” Senator Ron Wyden said in a statement. “This bill would mean more government surveillance of Americans, less due process and less independent oversight of US intelligence agencies. Worse, neither the intelligence agencies, nor the bill’s sponsors have shown any evidence that these changes would do anything to make Americans more secure.”
I suspect that this law is just codifying something they already do.
read this hours ago.
Already on a flight out.
good luck :)
I self-identify as a high-ranking federal employee, so the FBI won’t be able to find my stuff — so I’m not worried.
Treason
It would be nice to know where in the bill it is authorized.
I word searched several different ways and could not find anything.
Gee, the next thing the DC pukes will allow is for the ATF, FBI, IRS etc, to kick in our doors without a warrant and shoot our dogs, ourselves and family members. Oh, did I say next?
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. — Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution— PING!
Pinging Dayglored, ThunderSleeps, Shadow Ace for their tech lists for more government snooping over reach.
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Good one. At trial you should self identify as Secretary of State and exclaim “What difference does it make?”
(sarcasm)
Now courts and congress won’t have to look the other way and deny knowing what’s going on when asked. They can just say “it’s legal. don’t look at us to stop it”.
So they will know about all the Russian chicks who want to date me, about the Mexican pharmacies that want to sell me ED pills, and the deposed Nigerian Colonel who wants me to help him recover his bank account?
I have no doubt they already do this.
“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Whether or not one can argue that this doesn’t quite violate the Fourth Amendment, it’s wrong. Our federal government should (1) follow the Ninth and Tenth Amendments and limit their actions to those specifically enumerated in the Constitution, and (2) avoid any actions that could be interpreted as violating the Bill of Rights, even if an alternate interpretation would permit those actions.
I self-identify as a big eared egotist who’s key accomplishments is playing lots of bad golf.
I deserve free flights on Airforce One.
Exactly. We already know they do so. It's been highlighted over and over again. Now they just want to make it "legal".
I have always presumed the Secret Service or FBI or NSA or CIA or EPA or IRS or TSA ALREADY had full and free access to anything they wished to have about my past or about my present. This law may be an attempt to protect their agents from any litigation attempts.
When do these people go to jail for violating their oaths to the Constitution?
All this does is make legal what law enforcement ahs been doing all along.
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