Obama
signs NSA reform bill curbing surveillance program
President
Barack Obama has signed the USA Freedom Act, a new law curbing some
aspects of the National Security Agency's bulk data collection
program and reworking the way it accesses that data.
RT,
3
June, 2015
According
to the White House, Obama signed the bill Tuesday night.
Earlier
on Tuesday, the Senate voted 67-32 in favor of the USA Freedom Act,
adopting the same version of the bill that had overwhelmingly passed
the House of Representatives last month by 338-88.
After
its passage, the president issued a statement saying the new law
would "strengthen
civil liberty safeguards and provide greater public confidence" in
national security programs.
"I welcome the Senate’s passage of the USA Freedom Act, which I will sign when it reaches my desk." —@POTUS pic.twitter.com/dCUcGXsi35
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) June 2, 2015
Backers
of the Freedom Act say the bill ends the bulk collection of telephone
call records by the National Security Agency as revealed in 2013 by
Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, as well as brings reform to
the secret court that oversees surveillance requests and increases
transparency.
Passage
of the bill signals “the
first major overhaul of government surveillance laws in decades,”
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said on the Senate floor following
Tuesday’s vote.
Notably,
the bill passed despite strong opposition from Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who advocated for a clean renewal of the
Patriot Act instead.
“There
are a number of us who feel very strongly that this is a significant
weakening of the tools that were put in place in the wake of 9/11 to
protect the country,” McConnell
said Tuesday.
The passage of USA Freedom today marks the first time in 30 years Congress has placed real restrictions on the NSA. https://t.co/Ay4afs2eLe
— EFF (@EFF) June 2, 2015
Specifically,
the Freedom Act will
take control of
Americans' telephone metadata -- information such as the time a phone
call was made, to whom it was made, but not the actual content of a
call -- away from the NSA and place it in the hands of telephone
companies. The NSA will now be required to submit requests for data
using keywords in order to access information that could be relevant
to terror investigations.
Additionally,
the bill creates more transparency around the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act Court, which is responsible for
authorizing NSA operations. A new panel will also be created to
advise the panel when new interpretations of the law are forwarded by
the government.
Civil
liberties advocates acknowledged that the Freedom Act is not as
strong as they would like it to be, particularly since it only aims
to reform one of many NSA programs, but nonetheless welcomed it as a
step forward.
Technology
users everywhere should celebrate, knowing that the NSA will be a
little more hampered in its surveillance overreach, and both the NSA
and the FISA court will be more transparent and accountable than it
was before the USA Freedom Act,” the
Electronic Frontier Foundation said after it passed.
Senate
passes USA Freedom Act, limiting NSA surveillance powers
RT,
2
June, 2015
Legislative
efforts intended to reform aspects of the United States intelligence
community’s surveillance operations have cleared Congress and are
expected to be signed into law imminently by President Obama.
The
Senate voted 67-32 on Tuesday in favor of the USA Freedom Act,
adopting the same version of the bill that had overwhelmingly passed
the House of Representatives last month by 338-88.
Backers
of the USA Freedom Act say the bill ends the bulk collection of
telephone call records by the National Security Agency as revealed in
2013 by Edward Snowden, a former NSA contractor, as well as brings
reform to the secret court that oversees surveillance requests and
increases transparency.
Passage
of the bill signals “the first major overhaul of government
surveillance laws in decades,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) said
on the Senate floor following Tuesday’s vote.
Senate
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), an adamant critic of
the bill up until the moment Tuesday’s vote occurred, had
unsuccessfully tried earlier in the day to tack on amendments that
opponents said would have weakened efforts to reform the nation’s
surveillance operations. Had McConnell’s amendments been accepted
by the Senate, then the new version of the USA Freedom Act would have
had to go back to the House to be voted again, further delaying
passage.
With
the Senate’s passage of the “clean” reform bill that’s
already cleared the House, the USA Freedom Act is expected to soon
end up on the desk of President Barack Obama and be signed into law.
McConnell
sarcastically touted passage of the bill on Tuesday as being “a
resounding victory for Edward Snowden,” the contractor who two
years earlier had provided the press with top-secret documents
concerning the NSA’s surveillance programs, and said that absence
of the phone records collection program will harm America’s
counterterrorism efforts.
Under
the USA Freedom Act, the NSA’s metadata collection will be reined
in and electronic communication providers will now be required to
hold onto call records instead of the intelligence community.
Additionally, the court established under the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act, or FISA court, will be subject to new reforms that
have until now allowed the panel to operate under a shroud of
secrecy.
“Technology
users everywhere should celebrate, knowing that the NSA will be a
little more hampered in its surveillance overreach, and both the NSA
and the FISA court will be more transparent and accountable than it
was before the USA Freedom Act,” the Electronic Frontier Foundation
said upon passage of the bill on Tuesday.
Earlier
this week on Sunday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest issued
a statement urging the Senate to act swiftly in passing the USA
Freedom Act because the administration had determined the latest
edition of the bill “struck a reasonable compromise balancing
security and privacy—allowing us to continue to protect the country
while implementing various reforms, including prohibiting bulk
collection through the use of Section 215, FISA pen registers and
National Security Letters.”
Section
215 of the Patriot Act – the post-9/11 counterterrorism legislation
signed by Pres. George W. Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks –
had up until recently authorized the NSA to collect telephone call
records in bulk of millions of American citizens regardless of
whether or not they’ve been suspected of any wrongdoing. Sec. 215
authorities expired on Monday without being renewed, days after a
federal appeals court said that it did not think the Patriot Act was
ever intended to let the intelligence community collect data on
innocent citizens.
From Zero Hedge
NSA
Is Back Online After Senate Passes "USA Freedom Act"
2
June, 2015
While
one should remain skeptical of just exactly what will happen, the
Senate voted in the majority on Tuesday in favor of the USA Freedom
Act,
adopting the same version of the bill that had overwhelmingly passed
the House of Representatives last month by 338-88. The USA Freedom
Act (theoretically) ends
the NSA’s bulk collection of phone metadata,
it allows that information to be stored instead by telecommunications
providers, which could then be accessed by intelligence agencies with
a warrant.
- *SENATE PASSES HOUSE BILL TO EXTEND U.S. NSA SPY AUTHORITY
By
67-32, Senate votes final passage of USA Freedom Act to extend
Patriot Act surveillance authorizations. Pres Obama will sign it.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) June 2, 2015
The
US Senate has passed the House-approved version of the USA Freedom
Act, a bill cementing the surveillance powers of the NSA, only one
day after the expiration of key provisions of the Patriot Act. While
sold as reigning in the agency’s surveillance powers, the bill
allows the NSA to resume collecting intelligence.
The
Act formally pulls the plug on the NSA’s controversial collection
and retention of phone metadata, and marks the first curtailing of US
intelligence gathering since the terrorist attacks of September 11.
An
un-amended bill...
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky), an adamant critic of the bill up until the moment Tuesday’s vote occurred, had unsuccessfully tried earlier in the day to tack on amendments that opponents said would have weakened efforts to reform the nation’s surveillance operations. Had McConnell’s amendments been accepted by the Senate, then the new version of the USA Freedom Act would have had to go back to the House to be voted again, further delaying passage.
With the Senate’s passage of the “clean” reform bill that’s already cleared the House, the USA Freedom Act is expected to soon end up on the desk of President Barack Obama and be signed into law.
*
* *
So
while on the surface this appears to be a victory, we rather
skeptically suggest it merely changes the place where the bulk data
is stored... and even more cynically leaves the data access less open
to FOIA requests as it is now private property (not government).
Realistically
it appears nothing more than a great PR effort to bury the spy state
even deeper (and we wonder just what will happen to the Bluffdale,
Utah NSA Data Center)?
*
* *
This
sums it up still in our view...
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