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Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad — including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show. The Justice Department allowed the agency to monitor only addresses and “cybersignatures” — patterns associated with computer...

The famous (and in some circles infamous) former CIA infrastructure analyst Edward Snowden has written an op-ed for the New York Times about what he calls “a post-terror generation” that’s ”finally standing up for the right to privacy.” Snowden first explains that when he sounded the alarm about the NSA’s ridiculously broad spying program he was persecuted and deemed a traitor (which is why he had to flee to Russia). In the years since, though, a lot has changed: "Two years on, the difference is profound. In a single month, the N.S.A.’s invasive call-tracking program was declared unlawful by the...

He likened Bush's position on the NSA to his "confused" position on the Iraq War. Rand Paul is slamming Jeb Bush over the former Florida governor’s defense of National Security Agency data collection, the latest round in the Kentucky senator’s battles with his own party on the issue. “Just like he was confused for weeks about his position on the Iraq war, Gov. Bush appears completely unaware of the facts about the government’s illegal and unnecessary spying [on] the American people and made it clear his position is based on politics, not policy and the Constitution,” Paul spokesman Sergio Gor...

Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified NSA documents. In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad — including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show. The disclosures, based on documents provided by Edward J. Snowden, the former NSA contractor, and shared with...

A pair of decisions handed down by federal appeals courts in the last month highlight two telling pillars of recent U.S. national security strategy. They are: open our border and collect everyone's phone records. In Texas v. U.S.A., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit refused to allow President Obama to move forward with his plan to unilaterally grant legal status to as many as 4.3 million illegal aliens. The administration argued that Texas and 25 others states that sued to stop Obama's plan did not even have standing to challenge the action. These states, the administration argued,...

If John McCain, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, and the other Republican senators lashing into Rand Paul because of his efforts to force expiration of Sec. 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act had been alive and part of the debate back in 1775-76, they would have been blasting Patrick Henry for supporting Liberty. Colonialists McCain, Cornyn and McConnell would have been firmly in the Tory camp; defending the powers of the Crown to “protect” the colonialists through such tools as Writs of Assistance. Today, in this 21st Century, the tools may have changed, but the foundational principle on which our independence...

Tuesday in in Orlando at the Florida Economic Growth Summit, former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) said he was “upset” and “deeply troubled” about the debate over the NSA encroaching upon American’s civil liberties by the warrantless collection of bulk data that has now been reformed by the Senate passing the Freedom Act. Bush said, “The simple fact is, we are safer today because of the Patriot Act, and this notion that somehow you create a false narrative, as many on the left, and a few on our team, but mostly on the left, that our civil liberties are being violated....

Since the NSA stopped collecting metadata about telephone calls on Sunday, May 31, 2015 (or was ordered to stop, anyway… with this government, you never really know), many have declared that we are a less safe nation today. And this is true; we ARE a less safe nation today. But as usual, both the answer and the foundation for it are largely misunderstood, in a nation in which a biased press refuses to tell the whole story, and a disinterested public refuses to study the issues until the third presidential debate rolls around every four years. To answer the question...

A bill that would allow key government surveillance programs to resume for now – after they were temporarily suspended Sunday – cleared another hurdle in the Senate on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON — In a remarkable reversal of national security policy formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Senate voted on Tuesday to curtail the federal government’s sweeping surveillance of American phone records, sending the legislation to President Obama’s desk for his signature. The passage of the measure, achieved after a vigorous debate on the Senate floor, will lead to the reinstatement of government surveillance efforts that were blacked out on Monday after Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, blocked their extension. The vote was a rebuke to Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, as...

The Senate on Tuesday sent legislation reforming the nation’s surveillance laws to President Obama’s desk — days after a stalemate caused the National Security Agency’s powers to lapse. The vote for the USA Freedom Act came more than 36 hours after three parts of the Patriot Act expired, which caused the NSA to wind down its programs. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) suffered a political blow during the bruising fight over the USA Freedom Act, which he and other hawkish Republican senators opposed even after it was approved by the House in a broad, bipartisan vote. Senate Minority Leader...

The legal authority for several national security programs expired at midnight Sunday and will not be renewed for at least two days, after Senate Republicans leaders were unable to maneuver around Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a presidential candidate who followed through on a pledge to block an extension of the law. The Senate closed a rare Sunday session without approving the only legislation that would have averted a lapse in the authority — a House-passed bill that would provide for an orderly transition away from the most controversial program authorized under the current law: the National Security Agency’s bulk collection...

"...As a constitutional conservative who has argued this ground before, it wasn’t surprising [Sen. Rand Paul] made this case. In fact, it aligns with the central tenets of the conservative bloc of the Republican Party that believes that lawmakers should remain vigilant about ceding too much power to government. It was in keeping with William Buckley’s line about conservatives being the ones who stand athwart history and yell “stop.”So far in the Republican primary process the national security debate has been thin:Obama is weak and the proper response is strength. Whether you agree with Paul’s national security positions or not,...

One of the primary contentions, yesterday evening, of Establishment Republicans and Democrats in defense of the NSA's massive data collection program, was that the program was not only free from abuse (something we know is not true), but that it's ultimately useful in targeting real threats to the American people; maybe not yesterday, maybe not today, but perhaps some day in the future it will ensnare an entire sleeper sell of Jihadists mid-phone call to Iran, giving an unsecured credit card number to their yellowcake suppliers. The data collection, you see, is done only on those whose backgrounds demand it....

To say that the Daily Kos, Democratic Underground, and other progressive sites have carried the water for Obama since he emerged on the national stage is a drastic understatement. They've covered up lies, downplayed scandals, accused Republicans of everything from rape to murder, and through it all declared Barack Obama as one of their greatest heroes. It takes a lot to turn the opinions of blinded sheep like these. And while they have yet to awaken to who the President really is, the NSA scandal and the government's stance on Edward Snowden has started to make them hate the man...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency lost its authority at midnight to collect Americans’ phone records in bulk, after GOP Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) stood in the way of extending the fiercely contested program in an extraordinary Sunday Senate session.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Security Agency lost its authority at midnight to collect Americans' phone records in bulk, after GOP Sen. Rand Paul stood in the way of extending the fiercely contested program in an extraordinary Sunday Senate session. But that program and several other post-Sept. 11 counter-terror measures look likely to be revived in a matter of days. With no other options, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an about-face, reluctantly embraced a House-passed bill that would extend the anti-terror provisions, while also remaking the bulk phone collections program. Although the lapse in the programs may be brief,...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) late Sunday suggested that supporters of a National Security Agency (NSA) phone records surveillance program are hoping for a terrorist attack after the program expires so they can blame it on the Kentucky Republican. "People here in town think I'm making a huge mistake. Some of them I think, secretly want there to be an attack on the United States, so they can blame it on me," Paul, who is running for president, said from the Senate floor. Paul added that a reporter recently asked him if he would "'feel guilty'" if there was an attack....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Security Agency will lose its authority at midnight to collect Americans' phone records in bulk, after an extraordinary Sunday Senate session failed to produce an 11th-hour deal to extend the fiercely contested program.

I didn't a post saying LIVE THREAD, so I decided to post one. Senator Rand Paul will likely be able to force an end to some parts of the NSA program by midnight. (1 hour 15 minutes from now) http://www.c-span.org/video/?326227-2/us-senate-debate-nsa-surveillance&live