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."
Cruz wins this discussion hands down. I do not like Marco’s big brother to keep us safe routine. Was a fan, but he lost me on the Gangof8 catastrophe.
I am open to his second act, but his issue, and his bs excuse about what ‘we didn’t know in 2013’ in regards to immigration is garbage. WE knew exactly what was wrong with his Schumer blll. It was 3 years ago, for cripes sake. The immigration issue lines were drawn in 2006 and he picked the wrong side.
Thank you! The devil is in the details and these often can’t be explained in a 5 sec. sound bite or even in a debate with time limits and taking turns. Rubio keeps getting slimier with every opportunity. Totally in the GOPe camp for sure.
Little Meggie and Britt brett don’t like mean ole Teddy.
Rubio just got crowned as the RINO/GOPee King.
Frank Luntz’s group likes Cruz and Christie… go figure.
Does anyone think with their brain anymore?
I love Ted.
Exactly. You don’t get to tell me you need to spy on me to keep me safe,,,,AND simultaneously support bringing in the moslem hordes that are the danger in the first place.
Every time the U.S. votes to weaken its intel collection, it strengthens our enemies’ hands. Yes, the U.S. collects data on other countries via plane and satellite, but are you fool enough to believe that Russia and China DON’T?
Interesting fault line in the GOP that is being missed by most of the punditry.
The GOP is in the midst of a debate between the Nationalist vs the Internationalist wings of the GOP. I think after 27 years of the Bush/Clinton/Obama “Lets play Emperor of Earth†strategy, US Voters are looking for a President who will put our well being at the top of their “to do†list for a change.
Yeah cause all this spying on us has done SO much to stop the San Bernidino-Fort Hood-Chatanooga-Boston Bomber thugs. /s
And just how much good has all this data mining done when our enemeies know we do it and take steps to avoid being caught in it.
Meanwhile because of our PC dogmas, our security services refuse to look at the social media postings, or the religious/political views of Muslim migrants “because it might be offensive”.
Bullshit. We managed to survive 200 years without aggressive widespread domestic spying on citizens. That is the hallmark of totalitarian nations...period.
It is not the same as spying on other nations.
You are a total fool to think such information is not used for systemic abuse politically, for repression of dissent, and for the retention of power by the establishment. Every 3 days the NSA collects more sheets of data than the Stasi did in its entire 40 year existence.
And again, when a government creates open borders, arms cartels, arms al qeida, brings in hundreds of thousands of moslems of every stripe,,,, they do NOT get to whine that they need to have domestic spying to keep me safe.
Both men take this position contrary to the testimony of U.S. intelligence agencies before Congress that the USA Freedom Act gives them necessary new tools to identify and track the bad guys more effectively than currently possible without any need for bulk collection of telephone metadata held by the NSA.
Trump: Restore The Patriot Act [VIDEO]
Cruz voted to restore our Right to Privacy guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution for every law abiding citizen without compromising security.
I don't know who you're faulting for that failure. 0bama shut down the investigator who was following the people that would have led to the San Bernardino jihadis. No looking at anything Islamic!
Whistleblower: My intel might have stopped San BernardinoA year into the investigation, the State Department and the DHS Civil Rights Division told Haney that tracking these groups and individuals was problematic because they were Islamic groups. Haney reports that internal memos forbade him from developing any cases based on this profile.
His investigation was shut down, and many of his records were deleted, including evidence about a suspicious group as well as specific individuals tied to the mosque in Riverside, California, that Farook attended.
That was theater, nothing more. And both of them know it.
It requires ALL data to be captured an help by the telecoms and internet companies.
Then the NSA has to request it as needed. Childs play.
The act made more data available to them and imposes nothing but a slight alteration in the procedure. And it privatized the storage. But the US government has still become the most intrusive government in human history. The Stasi, the Nazis, and the USSR never dreamed of getting so much information about every single citizen. They were limited by the technology of the day.
This is nothing for America to be proud of.
Little Meggie and Britt brett don’t like mean ole Teddy.
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Britt has gone totally off the rails over the past several months. He has talked like the liar Dem strategists that regularly appear on several of the FNC shows.
I used to like Britt a few years ago, but I no longer respect him as an unbiased contributor.
Would somebody that knows how send this to Megan bimbo Kelly and Humming Hume over at Faux Knews. Of course, I am sure they will correct the lies they told tonight.
Yeah, we shouldn’t let a little thing like the constitution or federal tyranny get in the way of our safety now should we. Show me where we are any safer having our data collected at the whim of the feds. Hint, you can’t. I would argue the in the long run we are less safe as the bigger the fed leviathan gets the greater the danger the government uses that data to punish it’s own citizens.
Its absurd that the nsa is spying on everybody when EVERYBODY KNOWS its one group of people that poses any significant terrorist *cough*muslims*cough* threat but because of political correctness we all have to suffer.
Yes, and don’t forget the same mind set didn’t want to bomb ISIS because it might hurt the environment (which is bologna b/c Obie really wants them to win).
What data do you think NSA has been collecting?
What data do you think NSA has been collecting?
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