We’ve had the Patriot Act (I really don’t like throwing that ‘P’ word around, especially for that) fourteen years. By and large? It’s a real balancing act, which has been abused.
Now, the House has forced the Senate’s hand and hopefully we’ll have a new law which removes the mass data collection the NSA’s been doing. We’ll see.
Now, the House has passed the USA Freedom Act (catchy use of the ‘F’ word) supposedly restraining the NSA’s bulk data collection. Not a word of thanks to Edward Snowden, who revealed the abuse two years ago. Now there’ll be more transparency in the data collection. No doubt they’ll replace it with something else, or have GCHQ, etc. do it for them.
The House passed it 338-88. “Today, we have a rare opportunity to restore a measure of restraint to surveillance programs that have simply gone too far.” - Rep. Conyers.
Something new in Washington: Bipartisanship. To be sure. Why am I worried? When politicians agree, it bodes ill. It usually means that they all agree they have something to hide, which might have been exposed otherwise. I don’t kid myself it’s for the common man. Or is it just for show? After all, the Senate Majority Leader wants to simply hold onto the Patriot Act intact. Maybe the 338-88 vote will force him to realize it just might be the will of the people…not to mention that 2016 is fast approaching.
The bill actually expands data collection from chat apps, video, etc. It also doesn’t limit NSA’s use of search terms and “emergency” (the old ‘ticking bomb’) warrantless search: So, it really doesn’t do much to limit NSA’s mass surveillance and actually enables the worst practices, and allows the government to claim state secrecy, according to Evan Greer (Fight for the Future).
I guarantee the government will try to stretch the boundaries of this bill just as it did with the Patriot Act. I’d bet they have folks working on that even now (Reagan’s “9 most terrifying words” folks).
The Speaker of the House just said (in relation to Libertarians wanting stronger limits), "This is a very delicate issue. I know members would like to offer some amendments, but this is not a place for people to bring out the wrecking ball.”
Wrong. This is EXACTLY the time and place to engage in an honest a full debate. It is never the time to suppress honest concern over our freedoms. While this reforms the FISA program, it leaves the NSA with immensely powerful tools which they have been shown to misuse.
Section 215 is only that. What about all the rest? That’s where the NSA uses its many ‘tools’, where it expends most of its efforts, and no one’s talking about that. No one’s even saying “thank you” to Edward Snowden for doing something really patriotic: Sacrificing himself for our right to privacy from the surveillance state.
Source:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/05/a-long-awaited-reform-to-the-usa-patriot-act/393197/