Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lies
from the sad dept
Earlier this week, we wrote about a ridiculous misinformation campaign that was being sent around by House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes against an amendment (sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie and Zoe Lofgren) to a Defense appropriations bill that would block spending on two different kinds of surveillance "backdoors." First, ending backdoor searches, whereby tons of information on Americans that was collected "incidentally" as part of other searches, and then kept, could be scanned without requiring the showing of probable cause. Second, blocking the NSA from requiring backdoors into encryption technologies. A basically identical amendment easily passed in each of the last two years, but was stripped out before a final bill was approved.With so much focus on things like iPhone encryption this year, some were wondering how the House would handle the amendment this year, and Nunes apparently decided to ramp up the pure FUD and lies against it, sending around a letter that exploited the Orlando shootings from this weekend, falsely claiming that the bill would block law enforcement/intelligence from scanning the 702 database for connections between the shooter and overseas individuals. This is wrong (never mind the fact that the CIA admitted yesterday that it can't find any connections at all). There are plenty of other tools available, including the ability to get a warrant, for officials to search for the relevant data. Nothing in the amendment would have stopped that at all. It only stops the random sniffing through the database, without cause.
But, apparently such disinformation works. The amendment was narrowly voted down by the house, 198 - 222. Massie has said that he thinks Nunes' propaganda campaign was partly to blame.
Rep. Thomas Massie... the sponsor of the amendment the last three years, said he thought there were two reasons the proposal failed on Thursday. "I think it was about Orlando and a stronger disinformation campaign from the committee," he said, referring to a letter from Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes... that criticized the amendment.And it appears that Nunes' lies worked so well they were parroted by others during the debate:
"We had a stiff headwind," Massie continued. "But I think the winds will eventually change, and we'll prevail one day."
Rep. Chris Stewart... who said he rose "to oppose the Massie amendment and the inaccurate accusations that underly it," argued that if the proposal were in effect today, the intelligence community would be unable to search the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act database for information on the deceased Orlando shooter, Omar Mateen. FISA is a law used to collect data on foreigners, but the National Security Agency dragnet also catches information on U.S. citizens who interact with those foreigners.The only inaccurate accusations, though, are the ones put forth by Stewart here. NOTHING in the amendment would have thwarted anyone's ability to investigate the Mateen shooting or any other attack.
"We should be focused on thwarting terrorist attacks," Stewart said Wednesday, "not on thwarting the ability of intelligence professionals to investigate and stop them."
Rep. Bob Goodlatte repeated the same false thing as well:
"This amendment prohibits the government from searching data already in its possession, collected lawfully under section 702 of FISA, to determine whether Omar Mateen was in contact with foreign terrorists overseas."Except it doesn't.
It's disappointing, if not that surprising, that it appears that the blatant misinformation and lies succeed to convince Congress to sanction practices that appear to be in conflict with the 4th Amendment.
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Filed Under: backdoor searches, bob goodlatte, chris stewart, devin nunes, encryption, fud, nsa, thomas massie, zoe lofgren
Reader Comments
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FUD is a tool we need.
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Re: FUD is a tool we need.
"These Big I.P. organizations are in turn paying millions of dollars in lobbying senators for not only stronger copyright legislation to help hide their laundering, but to sponsor backdoors in commonly used software, including financial software, and if this is allowed, the American Mafia will use these backdoors to commit identity theft on an unheard of scale!"
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Of course disinformation works
Just look at the results of the primaries so far.
Congresspeople are representatives, just like the ones voting for the ultimate presidential candidates.
It would be suspicious if they didn't lick up any incoherent pseudo-patriotic cool aid: then it would be inconsistent with the current crop of presidential candidates.
So it's great to see that the U.S. political system leads to consistent results representing the political education and acumen of the populace diligently.
This is how democracy is supposed to work.
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Große Lüge
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Re: FUD is a tool we need.
I can think of a few that would.... a kitten however...
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Re: Of course disinformation works
The Kool-Aid is drank by all sides. Every candidate will have something wrong with them, there is no avoiding that. There is something I like and hate about every president we have had through out history.
The political system is not what leads us to these terrible results. The fault will eternally be with the people doing the voting. We are responsible for stopping this and we are failing.
Every Nation gets the government it deserves
~Joseph de Maistre
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Re:
It's OUR JOB to make sure they are doing THEIR JOB!
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Lying to congress
Oh wait.... It's probably not illegal for a congressman to lie to congress, just peasants.
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Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lie
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Lies
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Lying Works
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Re: Re: Of course disinformation works
lol
I get the whole dog whistle thing, but is this looks like some form of reverse dog whistle - where you get to claim the other guy is not patriotic. Brilliant!
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Re: Re:
Your enthusiasm is both invigorating and inspirational, please keep up the good work and do inform us about recent advances in your efforts to rid society of our corruption and malfeasance.
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Re: Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lie
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Re: Re: Re: Of course disinformation works
Well, arguably it does not include the CPA.
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Re: Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lie
"Read the Master Plan "Protocol of the Learned Elders of Zion" to understand when and how these diabolical "chosen people" tactfully and sneakingly crept into each and every segment of our American government, media, banks and our social structures to eat through the roots of America's greatness."
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Re: Re: Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lie
...is paved with good intentions...
sprouting from logical fallacies.
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They will use every illegal and criminal method they can to stop reform from fixing the blatant corruption permeating everything.
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Re: Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lie
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Re:
If they are not doing the job they are paid for, the constituents would be better off voting themselves.
It's like paying some handyman for a job where you end up doing more work than if you did it yourself in the first place, and having to pay the guy for making your life harder.
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Re: Disinformation Works: House Rejects Plan To Stop Backdoor Surveillance Searches Following Devin Nunes Lie
These days, our favorite Middle Eastern punching bags responsible for all evil are Arabs, preferably of Islamic religion.
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