Free Republic

---snip--- Sen. Rand Paul is in step with his party on most issues. He’s pro-life, a big backer of gun rights, a small-government conservative and he’s an unabashed critic of President Obama and Hillary Clinton. And yet, Paul is again in the spotlight talking about his disagreements with his own party. For months, Paul has been focused on reducing criminal penalties for drugs. Last week, he blamed GOP hawks for the creation of ISIS. Now, he has succeeded in pulling off a one-man blockade of the Patriot Act. Like his other views, Paul’s stand is no doubt sincere and he...

The Department of Justice is concentrating on “far-right” groups in a new study of social media usage aimed at combatting violent extremism. The Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice (NIJ) awarded Michigan State University $585,719 for the study, which was praised by Eric Holder, the former attorney general, earlier this year. “There is currently limited knowledge of the role of technology and computer mediated communications (CMCs), such as Facebook and Twitter, in the dissemination of messages that promote extremist agendas and radicalize individuals to violence,” according to the NIJ grant. “The proposed study will address this gap through a series...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Security Agency will lose its authority at midnight to collect Americans' phone records in bulk, after an extraordinary Sunday Senate session failed to produce an 11th-hour deal to extend the fiercely contested program.

Key provisions of the PATRIOT Act -- the controversial law that allows the NSA to collect Americans' phone records and secretly track suspected terrorists – will likely expire tonight, a former White House counterterrorism official told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week.""What I think will likely happen tonight is the law will expire," Richard Clarke said Sunday morning. "And then later in the week, the USA Freedom Act, which is essentially the same as the PATRIOT Act with the exception of the telephony metadata program, that act will pass and most of the authorities will be restored." Though the White...

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Rand Paul would notch a big victory in Washington just after midnight Monday if he follows through on his promise to block the renewal of the anti-terrorism law used to justify domestic spying programs. But back in Iowa, where Paul has tried to use the issue in recent days to revive his struggling presidential campaign, many Republican voters have responded with unease. Even some who stood in line to see Paul as he traveled the state last week said that they simply could not agree with his argument that the National Security Agency’s bulk data collection was...

RINDGE - Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas laughed off Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul's "capitulating Canadian" tag after a gathering at Franklin Pierce University Friday night.The new ad by the America Liberty PAC spins the U.S. Senate's upcoming session tonight for a vote on the USA Freedom Act as "the biggest brawl for liberty, of the century."The Kentucky senator is plugged as "The Defender of Freedom, Senator Rand Paul." The Texas senator is pegged as one of many "so-called-conservative accomplices" to President Barack Obama's assault on privacy rights as the "capitulating Canadian." "Well, I have say, I chuckled,...

Americans have watched for years as Washington has steadily drained the states and the people of their autonomy, but the NSA surveillance scandal, such as it is, has proven to be one power grab too many for some. As such, according to Watchdog.org, some state governments are implementing an example that Congress can (and should) follow with regards to limiting electronic surveillance.

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) RINDGE, N.H. — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz laughed off his starring role as a “Capitulating Canadian,” dressed up in fighting clothes, in the first attack ad of the 2016 presidential campaign launched by a U.S. Sen. Rand Paul super PAC — and vowed not to retaliate against his Kentucky rival. “Well, I have to say I chuckled. I’ve never seen myself portrayed as a World Wrestling Federation person, even though I guess it was one that I was not supposed to win,” Cruz told the Herald after a town hall event at Franklin Pierce University last night. “It’s politics....

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)’s America’s Liberty Super PAC is out with a new ad attacking Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as a “Canadian” who supports President Obama on domestic surveillance extensions in the Patriot Act. The extreme-style smackdown ad features Paul as the shirtless hero of a Sunday brawl in the Senate over the NSA and the right to privacy. Featuring a picture of Cruz with Obama and the backdrop of a Canadian flag, the ad calls the Texas Senator a “capitulating Canadian” who is “backing Barack’s bill.” Technically, the ad is not endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)'s campaign, but...

Aviation buff John Zimmerman was at a weekly gathering of neighbors Friday night when he noticed something peculiar: a small plane circling a route overhead that didnÂ’t make sense to him. It was dark, so a sightseeing flight didnÂ’t make sense, and when Zimmerman pulled up more information on an aviation phone app he routinely checks, he had immediate concerns. The planeÂ’s flight path, recorded by the website flightradar24.com, would eventually show that it circled downtown Minneapolis, the Mall of America and Southdale Center at low altitude for hours starting at 10:30 p.m., slipping off radar just after 3 a.m....

The feud between John McCain and Rand Paul worsened on Saturday morning after the presidential candidate successfully held up a temporary extension of controversial provisions of the Patriot Act. McCain, a leading GOP hawk and Paul, the leader of his party’s libertarian wing, have never exactly seen eye to eye. But the relationship became even more toxic after Paul successfully blocked the Senate from extending NSA surveillance programs for even one additional day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Security Agency has begun winding down its collection and storage of American phone records after the Senate failed to agree on a path forward to change or extend the once-secret program ahead of its expiration at the end of the month. Barring an 11th hour compromise when the Senate returns to session May 31, a much-debated provision of the Patriot Act — and some other lesser known surveillance tools — will sunset at midnight that day. The change also would have a major impact on the FBI, which uses the Patriot Act and the other...

FBI Director James Comey fired back on Wednesday at Silicon Valley companies that are calling for stronger encryption of their products. "Some prominent folks wrote a letter to the president yesterday that I frankly found depressing," Comey said in a discussion at Georgetown University Law Center, referring to a letter signed by Apple, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other companies, as well as civil-liberties groups and Internet-security experts. "Their letter contains no acknowledgment that there are societal costs to universal encryption." There can be benefits to securing devices from hackers, Comey acknowledged, but he argued there are also "tremendous costs" to...

A Merlin helicopter will be fitted with a new on-board system to deliver essential anti-snooping watch and send early warnings if security threats are detected. The Merlin Mk2 helicopter will act as the Royal Navy’s eyes and ears for its next generation carriers, replacing the Sea King’s helicopter’s surveillance capabilities. Philip Dunne, Minister of State for Defence Procurement, said: “It is essential that our ships and particularly our future aircraft carriers will have the best possible protection. “The Crowsnest system on board our new Merlin Mk2 helicopter will deliver an essential surveillance and intelligence capability, providing early warnings to our...

The Patriot Act provisions that have allowed the National Security Agency to vacuum up Americans' phone records officially expire on June 1. But the Obama administration says the NSA must begin preparing to end its bulk-telephone-spying program as soon as Friday. A Justice Department memo circulated among congressional offices Wednesday and obtained by National Journal said Congress needs to fully settle its differences over the expiring spy provisions this week in order to avoid an operational interruption to the NSA's mass-surveillance program, which was exposed by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden two years ago. "After May 22, 2015, the National...

With a call for “open rebellion” against the program, Senator Rand Paul (shown, R-Ky.) held the Senate floor for ten-and-a-half hours Wednesday in opposition to extending provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act that allow the National Security Agency to collect billions of telephone records and and electronic messages every day. "We should be in open rebellion, saying, 'enough is enough, we're not going to take it anymore,'" Paul said of the NSA’s “metadata” program. Calling for “a thorough and complete debate,” the first-term senator asked: "Do we want to live in a world where the government knows everything about us?...

Reflexively distrustful, eager to make powerful enemies, the young journalist whose Mercedes exploded in Los Angeles one night couldn’t possibly have died accidentally, could he? A t the end of his life, Michael Hastings, like many of the progressive journalists he counted among his friends, felt besieged by an overreaching government. Hastings was living in Los Angeles, and at a Beverly Hills theater in April, he took part in a panel discussion about the documentary War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State. Interviewed in May on The Young Turks, a talk show on Current TV, Hastings railed...

Above the South China Sea (CNN)The Chinese navy issued warnings eight times as a U.S. surveillance plane on Wednesday swooped over islands that Beijing is using to extend its zone of influence. Seeking to further challenge China's military build-up in the South China Sea, the plane conducted a reconnaissance mission over a contested military installation being constructed on a manmade series of islands. A CNN team was given exclusive access to fly onboard the P8-A Poseidon, America's most advanced surveillance and submarine-hunting aircraft, as it flew over the islands. READ: China cautions U.S. Navy on patrols The U.S. is considering...

Everyone who cares at all (one way or the other) about government surveillance should watch the documentary 1971 tonight, on the PBS show Independent Lens. Everyone who has an opinion on the Edward Snowden revelations should watch this film. Everyone who has an opinion on the USA PATRIOT Act should tune in. I say all this, mind you, before I've even seen the film. Full disclosure: I'm not being paid or compensated for this plug in any way, either. But I know that however the subject matter is handled by the director, it is significant enough and important enough to...

“Here in front of Independence Hall, I call for the president to obey the law,” Paul said when he took the microphone, as hundreds of his supporters shouted “President Paul! President Paul! President Paul!” outside Independence Hall after a separate event inside the Constitution Center across the street. The crowd went wild. “The court said last week that it is illegal to collect all of your phone records all of the time without a warrant with your name on it,” Paul said. “I call on the president today to immediately end the bulk collection of our phone records.”