Posted on 07/02/2011 3:10:52 PM PDT by Palter
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee is weighing fresh concerns about the sweeping nature of domestic spying using one controversial section of the Patriot Act. This particular part of that law is notable because it has been divisive for years — and because during those years President Obama has quietly moved from being a Senator skeptical of the provisions to being an enthusiastic spy chief whose Administration embraces them.
Last Tuesday the committee met to consider the worries of some members, mostly Democrats, who say the Justice Department has drafted a breathtakingly broad interpretation of Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
That section allows the FBI to seize without a warrant "any tangible things," like documents, so long as they are part of an effort to protect the country against international terrorism. The FBI can order a private company to turn over data as long as the bureau can convince a special national-security court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, that the information is "relevant" to antiterrorism work.
Obama Administration officials emphasize that this review by the intelligence court is an important step in protecting privacy. Privacy advocates, however, consider it little more than a rubber stamp. " 'Relevant' means some noncrazy reason for asking for it," said the Cato Institute's Julian Sanchez, who believes the government is using that authority to sweep up huge amounts of communications data.
The Intelligence Committee met in secret, and members are not permitted to say anything publicly about the deliberations. Senator Ron Wyden did tell TIME that the Justice Department opinion made the broad authority in Section 215 really broad.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
I supported the Patriot Act when it was passed and many Libertarians warned that this could happen. It looks like they were right. I wish that I and others had listened to them at the time.
They’re out of luck here. We don’t have one.
Seems fair to me.
Well,we all knew from the beginning that the extra constitutional powers we gave the Executive Branch necessary to combat an extra unconventional enemy could be used and abused by a new Executive Branch with anti-American nefarious intent.
So it goes.
Collect away, anybody who looks at my cell phone records or listens to my calls (all 6 of them per week) will be bored to death in no time flat.
I would ask the question, why hasn’t the media covered this day in and day out for the last year? Bush wanted to get terrorists using this, the rats went nuts.
Now the rats are using it for domestic spying and nothing from the media.
I read somewhere that the FISA Court has never turned down a request.
NSA needs to get out of the telephone busiiness.Using this law for spying on the domestic activity of opponents is what Obama is doing. Its liberal fascism.We need to clean house, or we will need to be exterminators for these vermin.
NSA needs to get out of the telephone business.Using this law for spying on the domestic activity of opponents is what Obama is doing. Its liberal fascism.We need to clean house, or we will need to be exterminators for these vermin.
Boy, they’re gonna be bored with my data.
The Patriot Act was the beginning of the end for America. You just cannot give government this kind of unbridled power. It is a disaster.
Government will expand until something stops it. That is the raw nature of government. In the case of privacy, the only way to prevent government abuse of the privacy of every citizen is to forbid it to collect any data that it can abuse. This is because if the data are available, it is only a matter of time before government will find a way to give itself a pass to get access to it.
Yeah, Patriot Act - a way for the democrat-communist-Marxists to track and act against patriotic Americans. Thanks a bunch Congress for reauthorizing this sham against the 4th Amendment.
No worries. They are not collecting MY cell phone data.
My cell phone calls:
1) Don’t forget the milk.
2) Get two gallons and bananas.
3) Dad, can we go swimming?
4) There is water around the bottom of the water heater.
5) The bird got out and is flying around the house.
They’re welcome to them in my case.
D*mn you talk a lot on the phone ! If I make 6 phone calls a month I think the damn thing is ringin off the hook so to speak.
Heh, heh! They haven’t figured out my secret code. Good thing, otherwise I’d spend the rest of my life in prison. “How you doin?” “What’s new?” “What time are you coming home?” “Pick up some junk food at the store.” “Is it going to rain?”
Good luck!
My 6 calls a week are usually to my wife letting her know that I’m on my way home soon (she likes to coordinate on when to start dinner), plus 1 or 2 to co-workers when I’m coordinating with them for something. These calls are nearly always 30 seconds or less. I have a TracFone for $15/month, I’m not one of those phone freaks that has a $100/month phone plan for 600 minutes and uses every minute of it (like some of my nutty co-workers, I don’t know how they do it).
You cannot have organs of internal security without
an internal threat, in order to provide for it’s
own existance a threat will have to be created.
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