As Expected, USA Freedom Act Aims To Stop Worst NSA Abuses

Legal Issues

from the a-step-in-the-right-direction dept

Tue, Oct 29th 2013 12:29pm — Mike Masnick

As was expected, a new bill to curb the NSA's excesses was introduced in both houses of Congress this morning, with very strong backing in both houses and on both sides of the aisle (in terms of having both powerful sponsors, and lots and lots of co-sponsors). The bill is not perfect, and it is not the final answer to all the NSA's activities, but it's a big step in the right direction -- stopping dragnet surveillance, reforming the way the FISA court works and adding some more transparency (we described many of the details in our post last week, and the bill matches what was expected). It has a decent chance of passing, but getting anything through Congress can be a chore these days. We'll be following what happens with this bill closely. You can see the full bill below or the quick two pager describing the details.

Usa Freedom Act Introduced 10 29 131 (PDF)Usa Freedom Act Introduced 10 29 131 (Text)

Usa Freedom Act Two Pager Final (PDF)Usa Freedom Act Two Pager Final (Text)

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Filed Under: bulk collection, dragnet collection, fisa, fisa court, fisc, james sensensbrenner, nsa, nsa surveillance, pat leahy, usa freedom

24 Comments

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Glen, 29 Oct 2013 @ 12:35pm

Queue the FUD from the NSA.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 12:42pm

What was the one from Ron Wyden, Udall and Rand Paul called?
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 12:57pm

And we expect the NSA to start following laws now?
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 1:54pm
  
  Re:
  If you ask them they are following the laws. It's just according to them the laws mean whatever they want them to mean.
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 7:42pm
  
  Re:
  They follow their own interpretation of the laws with their own blackjack and their own hookers
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 1:00pm

Waitaminit:

(3) an individual in contact with, or known to, a suspected agent of a foreign power.

This one is just asking to be abused again by NSA
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 1:04pm
  
  Re:
  Sadly cutting down their targets to just the people the suspects know or have contact with would be a significant curtailing of their activities.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 1:10pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Even with that, we had tens of millions of Americans put onto the terrorist watch list by that method, including US Senators like the late Ted Kennedy.
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robin, 29 Oct 2013 @ 1:16pm

Oversight This, Examine That
A huge exercise in bs: nowhere does the legislation mention unscrewing the backbone taps or reducing the flow.

I see lots of chatter regarding oversight, advocates, protection blah blah blah.

As Ed Snowden rightly pointed out, Section 215 authority is on it's way out, but that doesn't sweat the NSA. It's collection prowess happens under Section 702, which will *not* be curtailed under this legislation, just supervised.
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- Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 1:27pm
  
  Re: Oversight This, Examine That
  At this point I'd take a "just supervised" NSA... assuming actual supervision.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 2:19pm
    
    Re: Re: Oversight This, Examine That
    Screw that! Shut them down completely. Fire everyone. Bring criminal charges against Alexander and Clapper. Open DOJ investigations into every company that cooperated with them. I want heads to roll.
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John, 29 Oct 2013 @ 2:12pm

Punishing the offending officers
When is someone going to get off their collective asses and
punish the offending people in charge of these offences?
I realize that many of them have a LOT of congressional
backing, but if Clapper / Alexander lied to congress they
should be brought to task. If you or I lied to congress the
way both of these asses did we would be drawn, quartered,
hung, ridden out of town on a rail and then eaten, and
likely worse. NO one has immunity not the lease the men we
had to trust to be telling the truth, which it has become
VERY clear they did NOT!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 2:35pm

the Constitution was there before any of this happened ..It was worded correctly and they still abused it , this wont change a thing just another piece of paper in their eyes
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Screed, 29 Oct 2013 @ 2:44pm

Bullshit. This is theater to project the illusion that congress is actually doing something days before an election because certain individuals KNOW they're about to get their asses booted right the fuck out.
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- R.H. (profile), 29 Oct 2013 @ 10:23pm
  
  Re:
  You are aware that no sitting members of Congress are up for re-election next week right? There are a couple special elections to fill vacant seats (deaths and people moving to other political office) but no re-elections. That's a major reason that the shutdown was able to happen, it's not an election year so members of Congress didn't feel that their jobs were in as much danger.
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  - Screed, 31 Oct 2013 @ 3:27pm
    
    Re: Re:
    You are correct, of course, but Confucius say: "Sometimes it's easier to tip scales if you shake table."
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wallow-T, 29 Oct 2013 @ 3:36pm

I'm very glum. I believe that the digital communications infrastructure, in toto, is going to be too tempting a target for any sovereign power to resist tapping it up the wazoo, presuming of course that the sovereign has the resources.

We (the IT profession) have delivered the turnkey global surveillance state, and the only way out would be to smash the machines. No future.

What reason do we have to believe that the communications of the President, Congress and the Judiciary are not being monitored?
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- jupiterkansas (profile), 29 Oct 2013 @ 5:14pm
  
  Re:
  Or create a new machine.
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Anonymous Coward, 29 Oct 2013 @ 3:55pm

i bet it doesn't stop anything. it may well stop a lot more from being seen and known about, but i bet it just continues as if nothing has happened! i am talking about US citizens though. there may well be a bit of easing back on the spying on everyone else, just to try to put out a bit of show
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anon, 29 Oct 2013 @ 4:43pm

When all else fail they just pull the freedom card.
Because obviously terrorists hate freedom and everyone who disagrees is a terrorist.
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Isolation, 29 Oct 2013 @ 5:15pm

freedom my @$$
Freedom my @$$. Freedom Act? Oh please. America (and the west) won't stop spying or budding into other's businesses until they have the whole world is under their iron fists. Bullcrap using "anti-terrorism" as an excuse for world domination.
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TriZz (profile), 29 Oct 2013 @ 6:05pm

When?
When can we expect to see the outcome of this? I'm at the edge of my seat with anticipation of how this works out.
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Arioch (profile), 29 Oct 2013 @ 6:52pm

Secret Law
Yet again this FISA secret law issue raises it's ugly head. My understanding of the law (and I am no expert) is that it exists to promote a better society and punish those that, by there actions, do damage to others.

How on God's earth can anybody be expected to conform to "secret laws"?

The similarities to the nazi's are frightening
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R.H. (profile), 30 Oct 2013 @ 12:55pm

Those Acronyms....
Is Rep. Sensenbrenner the sponsor of this bill in the House or is there another member of Congress with a staffer who is excellent at coming up with backronyms?
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