Posted on 04/10/2024 2:52:21 PM PDT by McGruff
A bill that would reauthorize a crucial national security surveillance program was blocked Wednesday by a conservative revolt, pushing the prospects of final passage into uncertainty amid a looming deadline. The legislative impasse follows an edict earlier in the day from former President Donald Trump to “kill” the measure.
The bill in question would renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. The reauthorization is currently tied to a series of reforms aimed at satisfying critics who complained of civil liberties violations against Americans.
...
The bill’s failure also reflected the dramatic ideological shift in the Republican Party, which for years after the Sept. 11 attacks supported expansive surveillance in the name of national security but has more recently walked back from that position thanks in part to lingering outrage over the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign. That skepticism of the government’s spy powers has created an unusual alliance between far-right Republicans and civil liberties-minded Democrats.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
LOL- when GWB was using FISA to spy on people the criminal liberal media claimed it was evil...now that conservatives put a stop to it, all of a sudden its a “key” spy tool.
This is good news, but the downside is that if/when there is a terrorist attack on American soil the blame will be shifted to the Republicans for refusing “to give the necessary tools” to the security agencies rather than on the Democrats who let in all the terrorists.
“a key US spy tool“
AP needs to be burned to the ground they are a corrosive, leftist cancer.
Uh huh. Everyone except you is either stupid or ignorant? Got it.
“ which permits the U.S. government to collect without a warrant the communications of non-Americans located outside the country to gather foreign intelligence. ”
A steaming pile of BS. They’ve never needed a warrant to collect the communications of foreigners living outside the United States. We never had this till the Bush era and managed to do just fine. The FBI has massively abused its authority, so it needs things taken away.
Ass Press spinning furiously again. Trump is a private citizen and does not issue “edicts”. He is also the victim of outrageously illegal actions on the part of divers intelligence agencies through outright fraud in the Steele Dossier to illegal surveillance through intelligence information fraudulently obtained from the NSA to abuses of the ISA to surveil supporters and team members. The only “unreasonable” part of this is that any of it was done in the first place.
Smells of a deep state fake
***
The House just voted against the rule that would have brought Section 702 legislation to the floor tomorrow. This puts Section 702 itself in jeopardy—something that could easily have been avoided if surveillance hawks were willing to entertain reasonable reforms. 1/17
The purpose of 702 is to collect intelligence on non-U.S. persons abroad; that is where its value overwhelmingly lies. But the gov’t uses it to spy on Americans through “backdoor searches,” a practice that undermines the 4th Amendment and has scant national security value. 2/17
Lawmakers on the right and left have proposed reasonable reforms to protect Americans’ privacy, including a warrant requirement for backdoor searches that includes multiple exceptions and wouldn’t apply to metadata queries. 3/17
Members have also proposed reforms to close the data broker loophole, through which the government is evading constitutional and statutory privacy protections by purchasing Americans’ sensitive information from data brokers. 4/17
After all, it makes little sense to require a warrant for backdoor searches if the government can simply turn to data brokers to acquire similar information without a warrant. It would be like closing off one out of two breaches in a dam. 5/17
Lawmakers had several other reforms in mind as well. Most of these were included in a sweeping reform bill, the Government Surveillance Reform Act, that was introduced with strong bipartisan support in both houses of Congress. 6/17
The intelligence community, backed by surveillance hawks in the intelligence committees, dug in its heels. So reformers compromised and introduced the Protect Liberty Act. It still closed the backdoor search and data brokers loopholes but omitted several other major reforms. 7/17
The IC and intel committees still wouldn’t play ball. So reformers came up with yet a further compromise: the SAFE Act, which modified the warrant and data broker provisions to respond to the IC’s stated concerns. 8/17
Either the Protect Liberty Act or SAFE Act could likely have passed the House, and they certainly would have passed if IC/intel committees were willing to concede that Section 702 should not be used as a means of warrantlessly accessing Americans’ communications. 9/17
But rather than bring one of these compromise bills to the floor, @SpeakerJohnson chose to go with RISAA, a bill favored by the IC that masquerades as reform but is carefully designed to preserve the status quo when it comes to backdoor searches. 10/17
Reformers STILL agreed to go along with this, as long as they could offer amendments to close the backdoor search and data broker loopholes. But that was a little too much democracy for intelligence committee members, and they threatened to block the vote. 11/17
So this time, @SpeakerJohnson edited RISAA to ensure that the data broker amendment would be ruled “not germane,” killing one of the reformers’ two key amendments while allowing intel committee members to offer three amendments to dramatically expand surveillance. 12/17
That was the last straw. Even though the majority party traditionally votes in favor of the rule, nearly 20 Republicans crossed the aisle to vote against it, dooming tomorrow’s RISAA vote. 13/17
Many reporters are suggesting that these members voted “no” because Trump told them to in a social media post this morning. That take ignores these members’ strong and consistent support for reform over the past year. 14/17
To those who have been following Section 702, today’s vote was no surprise. It was a predictable response, not to Trump, but to @SpeakerJohnson’s decision to roll the committee of jurisdiction (Judiciary) and block reforms demanded by members and by the American people. 15/17
The message is clear. If the IC/intel committees want the government to continue collecting and reviewing foreigners’ communications under Section 702, they must end their insistence on allowing the government to conduct warrantless searches for Americans’ communications. 16/17
@SpeakerJohnson should bring the Protect Liberty Act or SAFE Act to the floor. That is the most (and possibly the only) viable path to reauthorization at this point. If the IC/intel committees truly want to see Section 702 reauthorized, they will support this solution. 17/17
• • •
Anyone who believes this Balderdash that there are reforms to protect American citizens is an absolute moron, and a serious oxygen waster
Comey and crowd lied to FISA judges and there were no consequences. The FISA judges knew of the lies and still granted the warrants and there were no consequences. The conspiracy to overthrow the legally elected government of Donald Trump is more widespread than any of us can realize.
FISA = Secret courts that authorized spying on US citizens without due process based upon lies and fabricated evidence — and none of the liars from the FIB and DOJ have been charged with a crime.
Barry Soetero and Samatha Powers are deeply saddened.
Showmanship,.. look at us. It’ll pass and probably with worse shxt added in.
We were warned, from the beginning.
Sorry-didn’t mean to come in that hot on the reply to your post. It just hit me the wrong way.
KILL FISA!
The media as the mouthpiece of the big state. “a crucial national security surveillance program”.
Kill it entirely!!
And kill the entire unconstitutional “Patriot Act” too.
Just about every change made after 9/11 to give the federal government draconian powers to “fight terrorism” have instead been misused by the government to persecute innocent American citizens that criticize or oppose the federal government.
How many terrorists and spies have we seen nabbed and prosecuted in the last 8 years as compared to how many conservatives and MAGA people have been persecuted and prosecuted by federal agencies in the same time frame?
Maybe had the libs and Trump haters not illegally used this to tap the phones of the Trump campaign it may have more support.
As it is I have even less trust in any damned thing federal government
“Uh huh. Everyone except you is either stupid or ignorant? Got it.”
Sorry friend, didn’t mean it to sound that way-
But the corruption and bad actors have always been there. It’s not a glitch, it’s a feature of government. Government is built to get bigger, giving public treasury to favored groups for votes.
Most of us have Confirmation Bias. We agree with what we agree with.
New forms of communication have opened previously sealed doors.
Walter Cronkite was always a leftist. The FBI has been a blackmail mill since it’s inception. The Federal Reserve is a private club, and we ain’t in it. Paper money is Fiat Dollars, with zero intrinsic value.
The list goes on and on.
Peace to you, my friend.
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