boutons_deux
12-20-2017, 03:42 PM
We must have public debate on warrantless snooping, demands bipartisan gang
A bipartisan group of US senators have lambasted an effort to force permanent authorization of a controversial warrantless American spying program through Congress by attaching it to an end-of-year spending bill, calling the effort "an end-run around the Constitution."
At a press conference (https://www.facebook.com/FreedomWorks/videos/10156137094484548/) Tuesday morning, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Steve Daines (R-MT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) insisted that there needed to be a public debate on section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and suggested they would vote against any spending bill that included its long-term reauthorization.
"The Senate has gone a whole year without a single minute of debate on this," noted Wyden. "Congress is being forced to legislate in the dark."
Wyden also noted that the intelligence agencies have simply refused to answer several basic questions about the blanket surveillance program:
including how many Americans have been swept up in a program that is only supposed to target foreigners; and what categories of people are being targeted by the warrantless mass spying tool.
Daines argued that without a proper review and debate "our civil liberties are being needlessly abandoned," and Lee said that it was "absolutely unacceptable" that such significant government powers that go to the very heart of Americans privacy and security would be reauthorized without a public debate.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/19/section_702_fisa_sneak_law/
Just a bunch grandstanding and pretty words.
702 will be re-authorized without any changes for the better, probably some for worse, the IC will continue as an independent govt with no oversight.
A bipartisan group of US senators have lambasted an effort to force permanent authorization of a controversial warrantless American spying program through Congress by attaching it to an end-of-year spending bill, calling the effort "an end-run around the Constitution."
At a press conference (https://www.facebook.com/FreedomWorks/videos/10156137094484548/) Tuesday morning, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KT), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Steve Daines (R-MT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) insisted that there needed to be a public debate on section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), and suggested they would vote against any spending bill that included its long-term reauthorization.
"The Senate has gone a whole year without a single minute of debate on this," noted Wyden. "Congress is being forced to legislate in the dark."
Wyden also noted that the intelligence agencies have simply refused to answer several basic questions about the blanket surveillance program:
including how many Americans have been swept up in a program that is only supposed to target foreigners; and what categories of people are being targeted by the warrantless mass spying tool.
Daines argued that without a proper review and debate "our civil liberties are being needlessly abandoned," and Lee said that it was "absolutely unacceptable" that such significant government powers that go to the very heart of Americans privacy and security would be reauthorized without a public debate.
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/12/19/section_702_fisa_sneak_law/
Just a bunch grandstanding and pretty words.
702 will be re-authorized without any changes for the better, probably some for worse, the IC will continue as an independent govt with no oversight.