Posted on 12/15/2015 9:24:55 PM PST by Isara
Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz clashed over their opposing votes on a key surveillance bill during Tuesday night's GOP debate, with each senator trying to establish himself as the strongest on national security.
Rubio accused Cruz of hampering intelligence agencies by supporting the USA Freedom Act, which ended the National Security Agency's vast collection of millions of U.S. phone records. That information could have been critical in investigating the shooting in San Bernardino, California, Rubio argued. "We are now at a time where we need more tools, not less tools," the Florida Republican said. "And that tool we lost, the metadata program, was a valuable tool that we no longer have at our disposal."
Cruz shot back that Rubio "knows what he's saying isn't true." The old NSA dragnet, Cruz argued, covered only 20-30 percent of call records, whereas the Freedom Act will actually allow the agency to collect "nearly 100 percent" of records. Rubio stayed firm, claiming that "there is nothing that we are allowed to do under this bill that we could not do before."
So who is right? Did the Freedom Act actually give the NSA access to more records, as Cruz is claiming?
Yes, according to top intelligence officials. "The overall volume of call detail records subject to query pursuant to court order is greater under USA FREEDOM Act," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence wrote in a fact sheet on its implementation of the law last month.
Under the old law, the Patriot Act, the NSA claimed it had the right to collect records on every U.S. phone call. But due to technical obstacles, the agency reportedly struggled to integrate cell-phone records into its database. With people increasingly relying on cell phones instead of landlines, the technical problems had caused a major gap in the NSA's database.
Under the Freedom Act, the NSA was required to give up control of the database. Instead, the phone companies keep the records themselves, and the NSA can get court approval to search for particular records. But critically, the law includes a provision that requires phone companies to provide "technical assistance" to help the NSA access the data in a readable format. That provision ensures the NSA can access millions of cell-phone records that had previously been beyond its reach.
So while the NSA now has fewer records in its direct possession, the universe of phone-call logs it can access is actually larger.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie tried to put himself above the fray by saying the debate over surveillance powers shows why the public hates the Senate-"endless debate about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin."
What data do you think NSA has been collecting?
What difference does it make if it means we are no longer secure in our persons or possessions? The Constitution should not only be the foundational document of the republic when it is convenient.
Excuse me, I didn’t realize you were a hysterical person.
Stated it as well as anyone I've ever seen. You're exactly spot-on which is why the minutia arguments ('dancing on the head of a pin') which often don't make a damn' bit of difference just infuriate me, and I suspect so many others.
Now in this specific case Cruz is exactly right, but even then the whole point about needing a court order to get access to the records held by the telco's is really moot itself: FISA courts approve EVERY DAMN' WARRANT no matter what. They're a rubber stamp! That's not a check and balance on power and the FISA courts do NOTHING to protect the American people from what is increasingly/has become a tyrannical government against its own people!
Yet no one talks about that point. Infuriating.
Your comment is not worthy of response.
They called it the FREEDOM Act?
I’d never trust any bill named like that, learned that lesson after 9/11.
Surveillance is already everywhere as is. FISA Court should just be renamed Star Chamber because they never sent the state any time.
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