Free Republic
Browse · Search
GOP Club
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Sen. Paul Calls for "Open Rebellion" Against NSA Spy Program
The New American ^ | May 21, 2014. | Jack Kenny

Posted on 05/21/2015 12:55:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

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? Do we want to live in a word where the government has us under constant surveillance?"

The PATRIOT Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C. Section 215, which authorizes the surveillance activities, is due to expire on June 1, unless reauthorized by Congress. A Justice Department memo, circulated among members of Congress Wednesday, said unless Congress renews the authority or a modified version of it, the NSA will begin “taking steps to wind down” bulk collection of data as early as this Friday.

“In the event of a lapse in authority and subsequent reauthorization, there will necessarily be some time needed to restart the program,” the memo said. The House last week passed the USA Freedom Act that amends the law by ending the authority for the bulk collections and giving intelligence agencies access to telephone and other records only when a court finds there is reasonable suspicion about a specific link to international terrorism.

"One [court] order would no longer authorize a bulk collection program, whether for telephone metadata or for other purposes," Georgia Institute of technology professor Peter Swire told the Christian Science Monitor. Swire served on a review commission appointed by President Barack Obama after the program was exposed by Edward Snowden, an intelligence analyst with an NSA contractor. The bulk collections are “not essential to preventing attacks” and information needed to disrupt terrorist plots “could readily have been obtained in a timely manner using conventional” court orders, the president’s Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technology said in a December 2013 report. The group was one of two independent panels that studied the program and concluded that it had not stopped terrorist plots.

Paul argued Wednesday that the Freedom Act still left the government with inordinate surveillance power, citing the liability protection it provides telephone companies as evidence that the program will continue to invade the privacy of citizens’ communications.

"One question I would ask, if there was anybody that would actually tell you the answer, would be: If we already gave them liability protection under the Patriot Act, why are they getting it again under the USA Freedom Act unless we're asking them to do something new that they didn't have permission for?" Paul asked. “If you think bulk collection is wrong, why do they need new authorities? Why are we giving them some new authorities?"

President Obama has said he supports the House bill and would sign it into law. But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and other leading Republicans want an extension of the program as currently authorized. Paul’s filibuster might be considered a pre-emptive strike against the Senate measure since it has not yet come to the floor. Given the Senate’s long and involved parliamentary process, it appears the extension will not be passed before the House goes on recess Thursday and it seems even less likely that the Senate will stay in session over the Memorial Day weekend to pass the House bill. The increasing likelihood that the authorization will expire before Congress acts has some in Washington worried that the nation’s security will be compromised. Representative Peter King (R-N.Y.) accused Paul of "doing a disservice to the country” by putting national security at risk.

"He's unnecessarily frightening the American people," said King, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in an interview with Newsmax.com. "He's making the [National Security Agency] out to be the enemy. In fact, the enemy is al-Qaida, ISIS, and Islamist terrorism, and the NSA is the key weapon that the United States has in the war against al-Qaida," King said. "The NSA does not listen to anyone's phone calls and does not read anyone's emails. There have been no abuses found against the NSA.”

The argument that no abuses have been found rings hollow as a defense of a program that is conducted in and guarded with the strictest of secrecy and became known to the American people only through Edward Snowden’s illegal disclosures. Even senators and representatives serving on committees with alleged oversight of the program can’t say what they know about it. And while the NSA may or may not be listening to phone calls, the agency is gathering the e-mails of millions of Americans, along with records of all their phone calls, without probable cause for suspicion that they are involved in or are plotting illegal activities. The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated and no Warrant shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the person or things to be seized.

Senator Paul, who has declared his candidacy for the 2016 Republican Party presidential nomination, promised, in an e-mail to campaign contributors, to filibuster against the program. "I will not rest," he said in the fundraising e-mail. "I will not back down. I will not yield one inch in this fight so long as my legs can stand."

Paul started speaking at 1:18 p.m. and quit at 11:49, yielding at various points to colleagues including two Republicans — Mike Lee of Utah and Steve Daines of Montana — and seven Democrats: Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Chris Coons of Delaware, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Joseph Manchin of West Virginia, Jon Tester of Montana, and Ron Wyden of Oregon. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of Paul’s competitors for the Republican nomination, had promised to join the talk-a-thon, but was instead called to preside over the nearly empty Senate chamber.

The National Journal noted a strong connection between Paul’s senate oration and his presidential campaign fundraising, citing a message from the senator’s Twitter account alerting readers to a “Filibuster Starter Pack,” available for purchase at Paul’s online campaign store. The kit costs $30 and includes a t-shirt with the message: “The NSA knows I bought this Rand Paul t-shirt,” a bumper sticker with a similar message and a “Spy blocker” for computers.

“There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer," Paul said Wednesday at the opening of his remarks. "That time is now, and I will not let the PATRIOT Act, the most unpatriotic of acts, go unchallenged."


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: peterking; randpaul; rebellion; surveillance
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-33 last
To: conservativejoy

Man you are willing to bend on this one you are willing to bend on all.

Did you listen to any of the filibuster last night? Chilling to say the least. Substituting prying laws for worse prying laws because of Snowden dump. Paying Google, Yahoo, and now cellular (not just land lines) companies for your meta data.

Billions of dollars lost to US businesses because of NSA spying on other COUNTRIES not TERRORISTS. These are jobs lost to US Citizens in these billions of dollars lost and allies lost to NSA spying.

American companies run out of countries, Brazil for one have developed their own mail application in place of Microsoft because of the NSA plugins to Microsoft.

The NSA is an overgrown bloated Government organization breaking constitutional laws. It thinks itself above all laws.

To the FERAL Government, stay out of my house, stay out of my bedroom, stay the hell out of my gun safe and stay the hell out of my data stream.


21 posted on 05/21/2015 2:33:00 PM PDT by eartick (Been to the line in the sand and liked it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Marcella

I wouldn’t lose a bit of sleep over it, Marcella. Full disclosure, my husband retired in 2007 from a Federal law enforcement agency that is charged with gathering intelligence under Homeland Security. We still have many friends who work in different branches of federal law enforcement. They are appalled that people think they spend their days sifting through data, targeting law abiding citizens. Nothing could be further from the truth. The job they do is complex enough without that kind of massive waste of time and resources. Besides, being monumentally stupid and pointless, it would also be impossible to provide the scrutinty that many here feel is a danger to them.


22 posted on 05/21/2015 2:34:10 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: eartick

I support the USA Freedom Act.

I stopped listening to the filibuster after Rand Paul make the ridiculous, pandering statement he made that we should apologize to the Black and Brown people who had been convicted of crimes detected under the Patriot Act.


23 posted on 05/21/2015 2:43:23 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: conservativejoy

Why even bother to have a “Bill of Rights”, as long as you have done nothing wrong. Maybe we should just rip that darned ol’ constitution up. If we can just infringe everyone’s rights because they say so our protection from infringement is moot, that’s the point, no other point needs to be made. Constitutionally we are protected from this behavior by our government and when we look the other way and allow this activity on the basis of “I’ve done nothing wrong” it undermines the founding document of a grand social order called “The United States of America”. No patriot should allow this intrusion on our liberties and certainly no “conservative”.


24 posted on 05/21/2015 2:51:07 PM PDT by VTenigma (The Democratic party is the party of the mathematically challenged)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: conservativejoy

Do Americans truly believe that the agency tasked with the huge job of collecting trillions of dollars of tax revenue
really spends its time picking and choosing who to investigate based on political opinion?


25 posted on 05/21/2015 2:56:01 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (Darth Obama on 529 plans: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: VTenigma

I support the USA Freedom Act.


26 posted on 05/21/2015 2:56:48 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: KarlInOhio

What does the IRS’s politically motivated targeting of the Tea Party have to do with the Patriot Act? I support the USA Freedom Act as a better alternative.


27 posted on 05/21/2015 3:01:13 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

Patriot Act
USA Freedom Act

Fine examples of laws that are named to give the impression that they are exactly the opposite of what they do and/or stand for.


28 posted on 05/21/2015 3:01:57 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day".)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservativejoy

“I wouldn’t lose a bit of sleep over it, Marcella. Full disclosure, my husband retired in 2007 from a Federal law enforcement agency that is charged with gathering intelligence under Homeland Security.”

I was ticked off when Homeland Security placed, on their website, the verbiage that preppers were suspect of being domestic terrorists, along with retired military. I don’t worry about them because I figure more intelligent people will head that agency once Obama is gone. I’m a major prepper due to having lived in hurricane country and I resent anyone having an issue with me over that - especially since Obama has prepper equipment to keep him alive for years in his bunker provided by us.

I know there are good people in the NSA and you know there are good ones gathering intelligence in Homeland Security. Now, we just have to get Obama out to make sure he doesn’t use both those agencies to go after law abiding conservative citizens. Until he is gone, I don’t trust ANY government agency.

Thanks for writing to me with your info..


29 posted on 05/21/2015 4:47:58 PM PDT by Marcella (TED CRUZ Prepping can save your life today. Going Galt is freedom.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Marcella

Good for You! I’ve been reading some interesting info on disaster preperation myself. It is totally goofy for that to be in any way suspect and I understand your being ticked off. You are spot on that it is the current administration that is the problem. I know we are all counting the days.....


30 posted on 05/21/2015 4:57:39 PM PDT by conservativejoy (We Can Elect Ted Cruz! Pray Hard, Work Hard, Trust God!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: 2ndDivisionVet

https://blackphone.ch/phone/

rebel amongst yourselves!


31 posted on 05/21/2015 8:18:19 PM PDT by TurboZamboni (Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.-JFK)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: conservativejoy

Then there is the reverse angle: has such shopping done any good at all? http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3292475/posts If not, why continue?


32 posted on 05/22/2015 7:22:46 AM PDT by ctdonath2 (Hillary:polarizing/calculating/disingenuous/insincere/ambitious/inevitable/entitled/overconfident/se)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: conservativejoy

“Here’s the thing. The targeting of Tea Party Conservatives didn’t have anything to do with the NSA or any agency operating under the Patriot Act. That was politically motivated by this corrupt administration.”

Thats why you don’t give the government the tools in the first place. Thats why we have a bill of rights. Else, we can just hope for a “nice” king.


33 posted on 05/22/2015 7:43:56 AM PDT by Augustinian monk ("Beware the Ides of March!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-33 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
GOP Club
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson