Posts
Congress
quietly expands NSA powers for spying on Americans
:
RT,
12
November, 2014
The
campaign to rein in the surveillance of Americans by the National
Security Agency (NSA) has become even more difficult. Instead,
Congress has used a set of provisions to expand the agency’s
data-gathering power.
By
way of two pieces of legislation, Congress maintained and expanded
the NSA’s surveillance powers. In a bill now headed for President
Barack Obama’s desk, Congress gave the agency what civil liberties
advocates argue is an unprecedented authority to collect and store
data belonging to American citizens.
Additionally, the omnibus spending bill passed by the House on Thursday – intended to keep the government running through most of next year – was stripped of the amendment banning the NSA from conducting ‘backdoor’ surveillance on Americans and insisting that tech companies redesign their products to make them more surveillance-friendly. That amendment had previously passed the House easily in June.
The Intelligence Authorization Act 2015, which will fund intelligence agencies for the next year, passed in a 325–100 vote, with 50 Democrats and 45 Republicans opposing. Through Section 309 of the act, Congress gave unparalleled legal authority to the government’s warrantless surveillance powers to allow for “the acquisition, retention, and dissemination” of US phone and internet data.
Additionally, the omnibus spending bill passed by the House on Thursday – intended to keep the government running through most of next year – was stripped of the amendment banning the NSA from conducting ‘backdoor’ surveillance on Americans and insisting that tech companies redesign their products to make them more surveillance-friendly. That amendment had previously passed the House easily in June.
The Intelligence Authorization Act 2015, which will fund intelligence agencies for the next year, passed in a 325–100 vote, with 50 Democrats and 45 Republicans opposing. Through Section 309 of the act, Congress gave unparalleled legal authority to the government’s warrantless surveillance powers to allow for “the acquisition, retention, and dissemination” of US phone and internet data.
Previously,
the White House derived this authority only through Executive Order
12333, signed by President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s. However,
backers of the provision passed by Congress argue it would actually
limit to five years the amount of time communications data could be
kept at intelligence agencies, certain exceptions permitting.
Reagan’s executive didn’t impose any kind of time
restriction.
"The provisions in the intel authorization appear to be an attempt by Congress to place statutory restrictions on the retention of information collected under Executive Order 12333, which is not subject to court oversight, has not been authorized by Congress, and raises serious privacy concerns," Neema Guliani, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union told the National Journal.
"However, these restrictions are far from adequate, contain enormous loopholes, and notably completely exclude the information of non-US persons."
"The provisions in the intel authorization appear to be an attempt by Congress to place statutory restrictions on the retention of information collected under Executive Order 12333, which is not subject to court oversight, has not been authorized by Congress, and raises serious privacy concerns," Neema Guliani, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union told the National Journal.
"However, these restrictions are far from adequate, contain enormous loopholes, and notably completely exclude the information of non-US persons."
Meanwhile,
lawmakers stripped a key amendment from the Defense Appropriations
Act under the omnibus spending bill. It would have blocked the NSA
and the CIA from insisting on spy-friendly product redesigns on tech
companies, and would have required a warrant for access to American
internet records collected under Section 702 of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Despite being passed by a vote of 293-123 in June, the Lofgren-Massie amendment wasn’t included in the spending bill because the vote for it will be considered under a closed rule. That means members of Congress won’t be able to propose amendments on the floor.
The death of the Massie-Lofgren amendment would cap a bad year for legislative NSA reform. The USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the NSA's automatic dragnet collection of US phone records, passed the House in May after being weakened at the behest of hawkish members and the Obama administration, but then fell two votes short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the Senate.
Despite being passed by a vote of 293-123 in June, the Lofgren-Massie amendment wasn’t included in the spending bill because the vote for it will be considered under a closed rule. That means members of Congress won’t be able to propose amendments on the floor.
The death of the Massie-Lofgren amendment would cap a bad year for legislative NSA reform. The USA Freedom Act, which would have ended the NSA's automatic dragnet collection of US phone records, passed the House in May after being weakened at the behest of hawkish members and the Obama administration, but then fell two votes short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the Senate.
Meanwhile,
the NSA’s actions are whitewashed in Germany
No
NSA doc, no evidence? German prosecutor says can’t prove US tapped
Merkel’s phone
,
RT,
12 November, 2014
Germany’s chief prosecutor said there is still no hard evidence linking the NSA to the tapping of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s phone, especially because the investigation failed to get a hold of the original NSA document authorizing the spying.
Prosecutor Harald Range revealed that it has proven difficult to obtain evidence that would stand up in court since the investigation began in June, following former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations of the tapping of world leaders’ communications. German outlet Der Spiegel broke the story on the spying of Angela Merkel’s phone in particular.
“As of today, there is no evidence leading to charges that connection data were recorded or a phone call by the chancellor was listened to,” Range said at a televised year-end news conference on Thursday.
Crucially, he said, German authorities were not able to get a hold of the authentic NSA document which authorized the wiretapping of Merkel’s phone.
“The document presented in public as proof of an actual tapping of the mobile phone is not an authentic surveillance order by the NSA. It does not come from the NSA database,” the prosecutor said.
Range said that an editor at Spiegel prepared the paper's report on the basis of the NSA documents he visually inspected/examined.
Chief State Prosecutor Harald Range (Reuters / Alex Domanski)
Also,
Range’s requests to Germany’s spy agency "haven't
taken us further," he
said.
Despite
little progress, Range said that the investigation continues. There
is also hope that a parallel parliamentary inquiry into the incident
will yield something new.
The
scandal initially broke when journalists working with Snowden’s
leaked documents contacted the German government for clarification.
German politicians subsequently suggested involving Snowden as a
witness in the wiretapping case.
According
to Der Spiegel’s reports, the German chancellor’s mobile phone
has been on an NSA target list since 2002 and was code-named 'GE
Chancellor Merkel.' The spying was still in force even a few weeks
before US President Barack Obama’s visit to Berlin in June 2013.
Following
the revelations, the German public was outraged and relations between
the two countries cooled.
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