Senate Quickly Says 'No Way' To Mitch McConnell's Cynical Ploy To Add Bogus Cybersecurity Bill To NDAA

from the let's-stop-this-game dept

Earlier this week, we noted that Senator Mitch McConnell, hot off of his huge flop in trying to preserve the NSA's surveillance powers, had promised to insert the dangerous "cybersecurity" bill CISA directly into the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act). As we discussed, while many have long suspected that CISA (and CISPA before it) were surveillance bills draped in "cybersecurity" clothing, the recent Snowden revelations that the NSA is using Section 702 "upstream" collection for "cybersecurity" issues revealed how CISA would massively expand the NSA's ability to warrantlessly wiretap Americans' communications.

Thankfully, like his PATRIOT Act games from a few weeks ago, this latest McConnell move has fallen flat. The Senate rejected the attempt by a 40 to 56 vote. So, for now, it looks like the Senate isn't going to be able to ram CISA through either which is good news.

Still, expect Congress to keep trying. But, each time, it's important to ask some basic questions: what attacks would this bill actually stop (answer: none). And what laws are currently preventing the supposedly necessary "information sharing" from happening today? And, more importantly, why is the NSA getting access to this information and allowed to run backdoor searches on its upstream collections of all internet traffic exiting or entering the US? These all seem like relevant questions and they're all questions that the powers that be are ignoring.
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Filed Under: cisa, cybersecurity, mitch mcconnell, ndaa, senate


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Jun 2015 @ 8:50pm

    http://www.mcconnell.senate.gov/public/

    Unfortunately his sites identity can't be verified. One can only hope the voters of Kentucky, in his next election bid, curtail him from wasting any more of the peoples time and hard earned money.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    got_runs? (profile), 11 Jun 2015 @ 9:05pm

    Never trust (The Turtle) McConnell.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    John William Nelson (profile), 12 Jun 2015 @ 6:57am

    I see what you did there . . .

    I see what you did there with your "Patriot Act games" refere

    Sadly the only Patriot Games meme photo I could find in a pinch:
    One does not simply hunt Harrison Ford in the Patriot Games.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    orbitalinsertion (profile), 12 Jun 2015 @ 7:10am

    Leland, what is happening in this house?

    Has someone put LSD in the water coolers of our legislature or what?

    And how sad is it that I think something crazy is going on when enough of them act reasonably?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    M. Alan Thomas II (profile), 15 Jun 2015 @ 8:14pm

    I hear that even CISA proponents didn't want it attached to the NDAA because the NDAA is under veto threat and CISA therefore stands a better chance by itself.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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