'ISIS! 9/11!' NSA reform bill killed in US Senate over terror fears

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'ISIS! 9/11!' NSA reform bill killed in US Senate over terror fears



The US Senate failed to get the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster and move forward with the USA Freedom Act, which would have placed significant restrictions on the way the National Security Agency's conducts surveillance domestically.

Supporters of the bill tallied 58 "yes" votes against 42 "no" votes, but they fell two shy of bringing the USA Freedom Act up for a clear majority vote. Opposition generally came from Republicans, but not all conservatives voted against proceeding with the bill. Sen. Ted Cruz, (R-Texas) was a co-sponsor of the measure, and was one of four Republicans to vote in favor of advancing it.

Senior Republicans said stopping the surveillance would benefit enemies of the United State, including Islamic State militants, according to Reuters.

"God forbid that tomorrow we wake up to the news that a member of ISIL is in the United States," said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), according to the Huffington Post. If the NSA cannot track phone calls, he said, "that plot may go forward -- and that would be a horrifying result."

"Let's not have another repeat of 9/11," added Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.).

However, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said there has been no evidence to suggest that the NSA's surveillance program prevented a terrorist attack on the US.

"If this was important to stop ISIL, ISIL never would have started," he said.

The bill, now effectively dead for this year, would have stopped the NSA from collecting the phone records of millions of Americans who are not suspected of any crime. The reforms are unlikely to be reviewed when the new Congress convenes in January, but the controversial surveillance program will most likely be debated next year as Congress decides whether to renew the Patriot Act, which serves as the foundation for the NSA's activity.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), a key advocate for change at the NSA, said the vote showed the majority of the US Senate is ready to debate intelligence reform.

“They join a chorus of Americans who oppose these programs, which violate the privacy of millions of Americans without making our country safer. Although I’m disappointed that debate won’t happen this week, those who value civil liberties and the U.S. Constitution will not rest until there is true reform that ends this unnecessary overreach,” he said.

If passed into law, the bill would have placed metadata records – information such as the time a call was made and the duration of the call, but not the actual content of the call itself – in the possession of telephone companies instead of the NSA. If intelligence agencies wanted access to the data, they would have to seek approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA).

The bill would also allow public advocates to participate in Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) proceedings. Additionally, the government would be required to disclose FISA opinions and statistics about the extent of domestic spying activities, though these could be withheld if they posed a risk to national security.

Although the House of Representatives passed the original draft of the Freedom Act in May, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-.Vt.) further strengthened the bill at the request of civil liberties advocates. Key reformers like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) have not yet thrown their support behind the bill, hoping for stronger measures against the “backdoor” collection of Americans’ data – something done indirectly when the primary target is a foreigner.

Third party supporters also expressed disappointment over the vote.

“We are disappointed that the Senate has failed to advance the USA Freedom Act, a good start for bipartisan surveillance reform that should have passed the Senate," the Electronic Frontier Foundation said in a statement. "[The] Act is a first step in comprehensive surveillance reform. Future reform must include significant changes to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act, to the operations of Executive Order 12333, and to the broken classification system that the executive branch counts on to hide unconstitutional surveillance from the public."

source: http://rt.com/usa/206731-nsa-reform-fails-senate/
 

MHz

Time Out
Mar 16, 2007
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Red Deer AB
geesus that ISIS is handy

the Swiss army knife of excuses
Still the US did put up a valiant fight, just not Alamo quality which is the mind set in Syria and Iran, . . and Cuba and . . the list is growing. Not a big deal as we might be better at being a subsidiary company rather than being -top-gun- material.

The sooner ISIS gets the territory they are to have the sooner the reconstruction contracts can come out, except for Gaza. They can be the example of what not to do or the same comes to your town.

The real money will be made by the BAR as it runs it's UN trials for war crimes. Use the recent trials over treaties her as an example of how bad it could go, 20 years and the case is dismissed more or less. The winners of the $200M price-tag to the public went to the Lawyers from both sides. The Mid-East is worth considerably more. I would think Judges from South America and Central America would be the ones who have themost recent exchange with unwarranted persecution rather than Israel as her Judges will be sitting at the tables marked prosecution or defendant depending on the case being heard. They are too involved as are all the Nations mentioned in UN 181 that voted Yes or No, the exception might be Haiti as they just paid off a bank loan to France that had been in effect for 250 years, the odds are some back-table negotiations took place before they would sign something saying taking some land is a righteous thing to do. Rather than go back to things being like they were in Iran when the US ran the place for 25 years but like Afghanistan when it's Universities were producing the leaders rather than the local version of the Mafia. It is like the Magna Carta coming down as protection for the consumers despite the objection of the business owners who would then have to (literally) clean up their act and the shareholders won't be at all pleased about that even though their actual day to day lifestyle doesn't change all that much other than their 'private resorts' will be overrun with people from the trailer-parks of the world who are all laughing. Only one of the two groups has trouble adjusting to changes like that. What they are forgetting is that they were in the same position when things went into effect that resulted in that document coming into existence. Protection for a group that meant the Royals would pick on the commoners when they went into one of their rampages. The Royals didn't just give that up as a new revelation, it was a cease fire as the business men were not strong enough to overthrow Royals as they controlled the military part of the nation.

Keep somebody in court is the way of the west is it not, attach a fine to that and the bankers are just seen as having to shuffle money around. At $400/hr they would want a fleet of Lawyers working for many years, that would also have to be put to the public as something that needs to be done, and for a few dolloraros more you can watch it live in HD and surround sound.
What is on trial is the choice of the trials being about less corruption overall or more chance to participate, . . . overall. Besides the price of moving all that steel around is getting ridiculous. Pot-holes are no fun when your stock civic is pushing 2ton in gross weight. ISIS cab be the 'black kids' in America's court system. They keep getting caught and getting fined ona more OPEC money ends up in the courts coffers. Not exactly worse than we are going through already, just a different beat boy.

What the heck is that picture? Sure ain't the U.S. Capitol.
No snow, you sure it is even in North America?

Texas

We don't hear much about that other bunch of global terrorists who were around a few yearss ago. I've forgotten there name.
even.
I would say Satan but he was before our time. I stopped looking when the Bank of England forgot to change her name when the new owners took over.