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French lawmakers on Wednesday (1 April) discussed an intelligence bill that aims to give sweeping surveillance powers to internal security agencies and the prime minister’s office. Announced a day after the museum terrorist attacks in Tunis, the bill allows agencies attached to the economy, defense and interior ministries to spy on people by hacking their computers or mobile phones without the need for a warrant.Anyone suspected of terrorism or terrorism links, even incidentally, could be a target. Prime minister Manuel Valls has said the bill is needed to detect possible terrorist activities in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo massacre...

President Barack Obama has signed into law legislation that authorizes spending of $564 million over five years for the U.S. intelligence community and expands protections for intelligence agency whistleblowers against retaliation. […] The legislation would encourage whistleblowers to voice concerns through channels rather than through unauthorized and potentially damaging leaks, supporters said. The new law, however, does not provide protections to intelligence agency contractors, such as National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden. …

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is standing in the way of an intelligence authorization bill as she tries to press President Obama for greater congressional oversight of the CIA's covert activities – a move that is angering fellow Democratic leaders... Pelosi's intel obstruction comes one year after she accused the CIA of lying to Congress about the use of enhanced interrogation practices, including waterboarding, on terror suspects -- an allegation that the CIA has strongly disputed. Now she wants to enable Congress to use the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to probe the CIA and is demanding that the CIA and other...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A ragged fence and a canyon called Smugglers Gulch mark the westernmost stretch of the California-Mexico border, a favorite crossing point for illegal immigrants and drug runners.

A bipartisan group of senators, representatives, and members of the 9/11 Commission flanked President Bush Friday at his signing of sweeping intelligence reform legislation. But an equally diverse collection of citizens' groups criticized what they saw as the potential for government oppression and invasions of privacy codified in the new law. President Bush called the new law, "the most dramatic reform of our nation's intelligence capabilities since President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. "Under this new law, our vast intelligence enterprise will become more unified, coordinated and effective," Bush said. "It will enable us to...

It remains to be seen whether intelligence reform legislation will produce substantive improvements in our national security. Republicans and Democrats alike certainly hope so, as do we all. But Congress and the White House failed to approve other reforms passed by the House of Representatives that would have ensured heightened border security and the ability to control immigrant documentation and identification, which the 9/11 commission recommended. The debate over intelligence legislation, thanks to Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner and Duncan Hunter, did succeed in raising the level of a critical political and public dialogue on the importance of securing our borders and...

Illegalize illegals: Time for showdown in open frontier By WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY JR. The new intelligence law, courtesy of 9/11, is mystifying because it does not face directly what is the most prominent threat to homeland security. It is: inimical action by non-Americans. All the people who participated in 9/11 were foreigners, here under various auspices. And yet the bill that has evolved from the findings of the 9/11 commission reads like an elocutionary exercise by a national committee to avoid saying anything unpleasant about unpleasant people born abroad. Specifically, the threat at this moment is from foreign terrorism. The...

Along with 74 of my House colleagues, I voted against the so-called intelligence reform legislation passed by Congress last week. First and foremost, the changes brought about by this bill will not prevent another catastrophic terrorist attack on the United States like the one we suffered on 9-11. This legislative effort was designed to make people feel safer because they perceive something is being done. Unfortunately, any sense of security as a result of this bill is illusionary.

If there's any truth in the adage "you can't fight City Hall," then it is triply difficult to take on the U.S. Senate, the White House, and the national media. Yet that is what my California colleague, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-El Cajon, did in fighting for an intelligence reform bill that gives military commanders and troops in the field direct authority to access real-time satellite and signals intelligence.

December 9, 2004 -- THE immigration wars have started again in Washington, with this round, like the last, pitting mainly Republicans against Republicans: conservative Republicans in the House vs. President George W. Bush. The charge from the right: that when it comes to immigration, the president is soft on enforcement. The only trouble is it isn't true. The president's plan for a guest-worker program — first proposed in January and, according to the White House, one of its priorities for the coming year — is in no way antithetical to enhanced enforcement. On the contrary, better enforcement is the heart...

TITLE I—REFORM OF THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITYSubtitle A—Establishment of Director of National Intelligence Sec. 1011. Reorganization and improvement of management of intelligence community. Sec. 1012. Revised definition of national intelligence. Sec. 1013. Joint procedures for operational coordination between Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency. Sec. 1014. Role of Director of National Intelligence in appointment of certain officials responsible for intelligence-related activities. Sec. 1015. Executive Schedule matters. Sec. 1016. Information sharing. Sec. 1017. Alternative analysis of intelligence by the intelligence community. Sec. 1018. Presidential guidelines on implementation and preservation of authorities. Sec. 1019. Assignment of responsibilities relating to analytic integrity. Sec....

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified project is a threat to national security. In an unusual rebuke, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday that the spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."

During President George W. Bush's first term, I was among his greatest cheerleaders and his toughest critics. I praised his execution of the war on terror while criticizing his education reform package, which was nothing more than a capitulation to Ted Kennedy, and which produced the legislation now known as "No Child Left Behind," an intrusive bit of federal education expansion despised by Republicans and Democrats alike. I commended the president's signing of the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, but excoriated him for compromising on the issue of stem cell research. I applauded his courage for defending traditional...

Text of press release from the office of Rep. Joe Pitts:Washington -- Congressman Joe Pitts (R, PA-16) called S. 2845 National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 good, but incomplete. The legislation, modeled after the recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission, outlines an overhaul of the U.S. intelligence community. Congressman Pitts opposed the bill which passed the House this evening. He issued the following statement outlining his concerns with the bill. "The purpose of this bill was to enact the 9/11 Commission's most important recommendations," said Congressman Pitts. "The House version did just that, and I voted for it. This House-Senate...

FIRE DREIER LIAR JUNE 2005 PRIMARY RALLY IF YOU ARE FURIOUS OVER DREIER'S VOTE ON THE INTEL BILL COME VOICE YOUR FURY AT A RALLY IN FRONT OF Dreier's OFFICE. Let's send the message to Dreier he will be ousted June 2005 Primary FIRE LIAR DREIER JUNE 2005 PRIMARY RALLY - BRING A SIGN, MAKE A SIGN, Join in Date: Thursday, Dec. 9 Place: Dreier's Glendora Office 2220 East Route 66, Glendora, CA 91740 Time: 4-6pm ********************************************************************************* ********************************************************************************* Call David Dreier - let him know we his constituents are mobilizing for the JUNE 2005 Primary and email Dreier! if you...

The House voted Tuesday to overhaul a national intelligence network that failed to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks, combining under one official control of 15 spy agencies, intensifying aviation and border security and allowing more wiretaps of suspected terrorists. "We have come a long way toward taking steps that will ensure that we do not see another September 11th," said House Rules chairman David Dreier, R-Calif. Now "we have in place a structure that will ensure that we have the intelligence capability to deal with conflicts on the ground wherever they exist." The House voted 336-75 to send the Senate...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. House intelligence bill negotiated Tuesday would double the number of border agents and substantially increase the size of immigrant detention facilities over the next five years. House and Senate conferees broke a stalemate over legislation containing recommendations from the 9/11 Commission, and final congressional votes could come as early as Wednesday. President Bush pushed for passage in recent days, but debate over authority of a new national intelligence director and proposed immigration restrictions threatened to kill it. Although some say the bill doesn't go far enough to restrict immigration, it authorizes the number of Border...

Since "Free Republic is an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web. We're working to roll back decades of governmental largesse, to root out political fraud and corruption, and to champion causes which further conservatism in America.", I and others think it's a good idea to centralize what the goes on in the Senate (or House). So if you see something happening on the Senate/House floor and you don't want to start a new thread to ask if anyone else just heard what you heard, you can leave a short note on who said what and about...

INTEL REFORMED OR NOT: The early indications say - not bad. Score a win for Congressman Hunter who because of his persistence got the very good language added:"The new national intelligence director shall respect and not abrogate the statutory responsibilities of the heads of the departments of the United States government." With these words of insurance Hunter is now free to support the measure and give President Bush a clear win on his first legislative agenda item since the election. Hunter's biggest concern dealt with red tape getting in the way of the chain of command that would prevent the...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. The National Intelligence Reform Act of 2004 remains stalled due to disagreements between House and Senate Republicans over the content of the bill.  House Speaker Dennis Hastert withdrew the bill after House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and Rep. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, voiced their strong objections to the legislation at a closed meeting of House Republicans on November 20.  The main feature of the bill is to create a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) to manage the CIA and 14 other agencies...