Posted on 05/31/2015 10:18:45 PM PDT by onyx
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The National Security Agency lost its authority at midnight to collect Americans' phone records in bulk, after GOP Sen. Rand Paul stood in the way of extending the fiercely contested program in an extraordinary Sunday Senate session.
But that program and several other post-Sept. 11 counter-terror measures look likely to be revived in a matter of days. With no other options, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, in an about-face, reluctantly embraced a House-passed bill that would extend the anti-terror provisions, while also remaking the bulk phone collections program.
Although the lapse in the programs may be brief, intelligence officials warned that it could jeopardize Americans' safety and amount to a win for terrorists. But civil liberties groups applauded as Paul, who is running for president, forced the expiration of the once-secret program made public by NSA contractor Edward Snowden, which critics say is an unconstitutional intrusion into Americans' privacy.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
Were it not so late, I would make a phone call!
LOL.
Great news! God bless Rand Paul!
Now congress must name the enemy and just go after them - start with the foreign threats of terrorism and state sponsored terrorism against the U.S. Such as Isis etc.
This never would have halted without Snowden, whether he is a good guy or bad guy: he brought the sweeping indiscriminate Intel gathering to the public eye.
Now government must focus on real threats, not legal political opposition.
Then why do they need the so-called "American Freedom Act?"
LOL.
Precisely.
I reckon they’re not intending to stop their activities.
I mean, how would we know?
Well I be damned. It appears a freshman Senator actually accomplished something substantial. Significantly substantial.
Please note, this does not mean I am supporting Rand Paul for President. Not by a long shot.
I highly doubt NSA stopped monitoring anything at midnight.
The best thing for us is to NAME our enemy....
OBAMA and Government
This was by far the best thing for America. Rand moved up several notches on my presidential list.
Did he rupture a pulsing blood vessel on his forehead. He always looks like something is going to blow.
Eventually they’ll pass something and then the False Flag operation will be blamed on the days or weeks when they were ‘blind’. How much do you want to bet that nothing has changed at all regardless of whether authorizing legislation has passed?
Anything that ticks off McCain is usually a good thing. Junior got a golden endorsement from him last night.
I wholeheartedly agree with your words!
Glad they lapsed. We cannot allow those with the capacity to collect everything to collect anything. The capacity to collect everything is too great a power for depraved human beings. It will be abused and probably tyrannically abused.
Our defense against terrorism should be immediate destruction of any source of terror. When attacked you attack back. You Don’t cower and violate your own people.
I believe your statement is a complete overstatement of how intelligence actually works. I'll use the killing of Bin Laden as an example. There were literally thousands of bits and pieces of information that were used to finally find and kill him. Look at how the identity of his courier was found which ultimately led to finding Bin Laden. It was "electronics and phone tracking" that led to the courier, along with a highly skilled and dedicated intelligence community. Intelligence is usually not a single smoking gun, but rather a lot of information, hard work and dedication.
I was going to post but you read my mind. I agree 100% with you.
This sets up an environment that is IDEAL for a ‘False Flag’!
Beat me to this one.
There is one in the making and you can bet the farm on it.
Further, if Mclame is pissed, I am happy. The correct thing is happening is the House of Ill Repute when that jack leg is running around complaining about part of a law expiring.
McCain can go a goat w/ his M.East buddies.
Where’s the press (especially those on the Right) hounding the ‘leaders’ of Congress about their prior RULES? 3 days before passing, transparency and the like?
all the records get dumped into the NSA bin. those that are needed to be reviewed to search out terrorists are scrutinized.
All the others are just left in the bin.
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