Posted on 06/01/2015 8:27:01 AM PDT by NRx
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 of call records from telephone companies.
Spurred by the impending deadline, senators voted overwhelmingly, 77 to 17, to proceed with the measure Sunday, a week after they didn’t act on it before starting a week-long recess. But Paul, under Senate rules, was able to delay final passage of the bill until at least Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
It is a start. But more needs to be done. Look for the next President to call for a complete removel of the Patriot Act.
I read a book called “The Puzzle Palace” about NSA. When they were ordered to stop reading telegraph copies, they simply didn’t stop but went more underground. Same with every other restriction put on them.
Since collecting metadata is all software and signals, there is no clear way to know if they stopped or not.
Other than funding, none of the powers depends on legislation. The function of the legislation is to grease the skids in court, if need be. But the constitutionality of snooping is 100% independent of legislation.
Nothing more.
The NSA used to recruit my campus heavily in the 80’s (we had a very good Slavic language program and they needed translators).
Word was going around that they pretty much had a standing deal with the Brits. MI-6 would spy on our citizens, and we would spy on British subjects. Then they’d just exchange notes.
“Word was going around that they pretty much had a standing deal with the Brits. MI-6 would spy on our citizens, and we would spy on British subjects. Then they’d just exchange notes.”
That was in Puzzle Palace. Since we could not spy on ours, and they coud not spy on theirs, this was a way to get the job done “legally”.
Brits are “subjects”;we are still citizens although too many don’t care.
Well it looks like they are going to replace it with the USA Freedom Act authored by Mike Lee. It does not go far enough IMO but its a lot better than the original Patriot Act. And thank God for Rand Paul fighting for our freedoms or non of this would ever have been reformed at all.
Once again, a member of the Paul family plays conspiracy minded conservatives for dopes. This is nothing more than a publicity stunt designed to aid his presidential campaign. This whole thing about meta-data and spying on citizens had no more meaning than his bogus tirade about drone strikes.
But, no, his presidential aspirations (and fund raising) is more important to him than the security of the United States. He’s a nut case like his father full of imagined threats and inane solutions.
They will construe this to be something not final until “it’s final” and even then they will rely on the 1934 telecommunications act for precedent.
the 1996 Telecom Act only made it possible for them to invest in the same companies and as part owners in the companies they have a legitimate right to the technology, which they should have never been allowed to insist or assert by power of the gubmint.
Can’t wait to see Jennifer Rubin have a neofit.
They aren't gone at all. The government doesn't depend on Congress for this power, just for the funding. The courts have ruled the power exists.
Riiiiiiight.
Hahahahaha
Does ANYONE really belive that the NSA will stop. or at the very least won’t come up with a workaround?
If so, I’ve got this really nice bridge in Brooklyn....
I'd read the same of Australia—always one of our best allies. I hope our NSA equipment goes to them. I suspect they are screening for speakers of Arabic.
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