House Refuses To Consider USA Freedom Amendment Stopping NSA's Backdoor Searches... Even As Everyone Supports It

from the ridiculous dept

As we've noted, there's a new USA Freedom Act in town, and it's on the fast track through Congress. It has some good stuff in there, and is generally a step forward on surveillance reform and ending certain forms of bulk collection -- though there are some concerns about how it can be abused. But one thing that plenty of people agree on, is that even if it's a step, it doesn't go nearly far enough. Last Thursday, there was a markup in the House Judiciary Committee, to help move the bill to the floor, and some amendments were proposed to improve the bill -- all of which got rejected.

What was especially frustrating, was that for at least one key amendment, everyone agreed that it was important and supported it, and yet they still refused to support it. The reasoning, basically, was that the existing bill was the work of many, many months of back and forth and compromises, and the administration and the House leadership had made it clear that it would not approve a single deviation, even if it was really important. The amendment in question was basically a replica of an appropriations amendment from Reps. Ted Poe, Zoe Lofgren and Thomas Massie that we wrote about last year, which surprised many by passing overwhelmingly in the House, only to be stripped out by the Senate. The key idea: ending the ability of the NSA and others to do "backdoor searches" on data collected under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act (both the "upstream" collection and PRISM). And even though everyone supported it, they couldn't go forward with it and upset the rest of the process:

It was clear from their comments that a majority of committee members supported the goal of the amendment. Indeed, no member spoke against it on substantive grounds. But Committee Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) explained that the bill represents a fragile compromise — primarily with members of the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) — and that House leadership had made clear the bill would not get a floor vote if the Judiciary Committee amended it. (Whether leadership is carrying the water for HPSCI or vice versa — and what role the administration is playing here — are unanswered questions that deserve their own blog post.) The members were faced with a choice: acknowledge the terms set by House leadership and vote against an amendment designed to restore critical Fourth Amendment protections for Americans, or reject those terms and possibly derail surveillance reform altogether.

That’s where things got interesting, as the members spent an hour thoughtfully parsing what the right course of action was. (In the video, the amendment was proposed at 1:11:00.) More than one member characterized Poe’s amendment as an example of “the perfect being the enemy of the good.” There was consensus that back door searches implicate the Fourth Amendment. But, Goodlatte said, so does the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records — an important statement, given the FISA Court’s controversial rulings to the contrary. By killing the bill’s chances of a floor vote, Goodlatte implied, Poe’s amendment would be a net negative for the Fourth Amendment. Goodlatte also pledged to hold hearings on Section 702 in the near future, and to work with Poe to find opportunities outside of the context of the USA Freedom Act to address the problem.

Other members, though, were not willing to accept House leadership’s efforts to constrain them. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) posed the key question of the morning: what can members do when House leadership is blocking reform favored by a majority of the House? Poe’s amendment mirrored an amendment offered last year by Lofgren and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to a defense appropriations bill; that amendment passed overwhelmingly, 293–123, with 94 Republicans voting in favor. Lofgren suggested it might be time to consider a discharge petition — a procedural measure by which a majority of House members can bring legislation to the floor for a vote even if House leadership objects. She acknowledged that it’s difficult for the majority to buck the will of leadership, but that this was a case of “right versus wrong,” pitting the Constitution against “lawless behavior.”

Poe showed even more frustration. Addressing Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner’s (R-Wis.) observation that the Committee would have a chance to revisit Section 702 in 2017 when the FAA expires, Poe observed dryly that the Committee was not simply delaying the building of a bridge. It was delaying vital Fourth Amendment protections for Americans. He put the question simply: do politics trump the Constitution, or does the Constitution trump politics? He urged fellow committee members not to let leadership’s threats dictate their vote. He said they should support the amendment and let the political chips fall where they may.

And, yes, of course, in the end the amendment was rejected 24 to 9. I think the whole "perfect is the enemy of the good" argument made by some is clearly bogus in this scenario. The only "good" to come out of this is the fact that Poe, Lofgren and others aren't willing to let this matter drop -- though the idea of waiting until 2017 to address an issue that we already know the majority of the House supports, is pretty ridiculous. Especially when pretty much everyone agrees that we're talking about violations of the 4th Amendment.

Hopefully this means that this issue will get addressed separately, even if not in this particular bill. The fear, as always in this sort of situation, is that after the Herculean effort just to get this far to get this particular bill approved, that no one will have the appetite to continue the process and get the other necessary reforms in place.

Filed Under: backdoor searches, congress, house judiciary committee, nsa, section 215, section 702, surveillance, ted poe, usa freedom act, zoe lofgren

New Version Of USA Freedom Surveillance Reform Bill To Hit The House This Week

from the more-improvements,-but-a-few-worrisome-concessions dept

The USA Freedom Act is back in another attempt to rein in the NSA -- one that was sabotaged twice last year. A bill under this name was first introduced in the House, which actually passed out of committee, but only after being gutted in response to pressure from the administration. A much better version was introduced by the Senate, but this one never managed to make it out to the floor for a full vote -- held back by NSA defenders who portrayed its Section 215 reforms as somehow more damaging to privacy than an unrestrained NSA.

This House bill heads into committee with only a few weeks remaining before certain provisions of the Patriot Act are due to expire, including the Section 215 bulk records program. Sen. Mitch McConnell has done what he can to lower this bill's chance of success. Shortly before USA Freedom was to be introduced into Senate, he delivered a bill that would authorize a "no questions asked" renewal of these provisions until the end of 2019. Thanks to his position as Majority Leader, he was able to bypass the committee vote and bring it straight to the floor.

This version of USA Freedom is obviously a vast improvement over the previously-eviscerated House bill, but there are still concerns on both sides of the issue. NSA defenders will probably oppose it because it supposedly goes too far. Civil liberties defenders will oppose it because it doesn't go far enough. The ACLU has already expressed its concerns about the pending legislation.

“The disclosures of the last two years make clear that we need wholesale reform. Congress should let Section 215 sunset as it’s scheduled to, and then it should turn to reforming the other surveillance authorities that have been used to justify bulk collection,” said Jameel Jaffer, the group’s deputy legal director.

What the bill does do is fix a lot of what was broken on its last trip through. The legislation would end the Section 215 bulk records collection and force the NSA to perform targeted requests for phone metadata from telcos. It would also provide an avenue to challenge the use of this data in court by adding a requirement to serve notice to those whose records were accessed. In addition, it would make National Security Letter gag orders challengeable by those companies served with one and require a "periodic review" of outstanding non-disclosure orders to ensure they're still valid.

What it doesn't do is actually end Section 215. It would end the bulk collection but "emergency" requests could still be made to circumvent the additional search restrictions USA Freedom imposes. It also preserves the NSA's ability to deploy roving wiretaps.

Sen. Ron Wyden says he's not in love with the new bill, but he'll support it.

"I obviously want it to go further, closing the backdoor search loophole and the like," the Oregon Democrat said. "But I think Sen. Leahy's effort to end the collection of all of this personal information ... are very important and I'm in support of it."

Considering McConnell's last-minute maneuvering to save Section 215 from alteration or expiration, there will probably be others who will throw their support behind this bill rather than see the bulk records collection remain intact for the next half-decade. If nothing else, it's at least a step towards serious surveillance reform.

Filed Under: bulk collection, mass surveillance, nsa, patrick leahy, patriot act, privacy, ron wyden, section 215, surveillance, surveillance reform, usa freedom act

Sen. McConnell Undercuts USA Freedom Act By Dropping Bill To Reauthorize PATRIOT Act Until 2020 Directly On The Senate Floor

from the keep-those-traitorous-reformers-in-line-and-all-that dept

In a little more than a month, elements of the PATRIOT Act are up for renewal. Among aspects being considered is the Section 215 program, an element which could suddenly disappear from the NSA's surveillance arsenal if the provision isn't re-upped yet again. (Or not. Wording in the most recent Section 215 authorization from the FISA court suggests it will just renew the order on June 1st unless it hears otherwise from Congress.)

With enough of a concerted non-effort, these provisions could simply expire. But there's no way this date comes and goes without a vote. PATRIOT Act renewals have generally faced minimal opposition, but this year there's a bit more uncertainty. A year-and-a-half of surveillance leaks has finally forced many legislators to confront what exactly they're authorizing in the name of national security. The leaks have led directly to numerous bills seeking to curb the NSA's domestic surveillance efforts. None have been successful to this point, but there's enough ill will out there that this renewal isn't the slam dunk it's been in previous years.

Obviously well aware of this increased opposition, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has introduced a last-minute bill that would reauthorize the expiring PATRIOT Act provisions until the end of 2020. To ensure it gets to the floor before opposing bills or June 1st's expiration date, McConnell and co-sponsor Richard Burr invoked a Senate rule that allowed them to bypass the usual process -- namely its initial appearance before a Senate committee, which can then decide if the bill should move forward.

This allows McConnell and supporters to get a jump on Sen. Leahy's revamped USA Freedom Act, which is due to be presented to the Senate committee Wednesday. (McConnell presented his bill Tuesday night). Leahy isn't happy.

“Despite overwhelming consensus that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act must end, Senate Republican leaders are proposing to extend that authority without change,” he said in a statement Tuesday night. “This tone deaf attempt to pave the way for five and a half more years of unchecked surveillance will not succeed. I will oppose any reauthorization of Section 215 that does not contain meaningful reforms.”

McConnell may not believe he has the votes necessary to push through a "no questions asked" renewal of these PATRIOT Act provisions, but his actions signal there's still a number of senators willing to grant national security agencies whatever they need, whenever they ask.

Filed Under: mitch mcconnell, patriot act, usa freedom act

Florida Senator Apparently Voted The Wrong Way Over USA Freedom Act [UPDATE: Or Not]

from the you-had-one-job dept

Update: And, of course just as this story came out, Nelson's office finally spoke on the issue after dodging requests from multiple reporters all morning. They told Kevin Collier that the vote was not a mistake, despite the rumors and questions (and the fact that he was the only Democrat to vote against cloture. The original post is below. According to Collier, Nelson's office says that he feared the bill would have "undone a provision allowing for retention of certain telephone records that he feels is helpful in preventing future terrorist attacks." That's a funny statement, of course, given that the program in question has yet to be shown to have prevented any terrorist attacks. Ah well...

Oh, Florida. As we noted last night, the Senate failed to move the USA Freedom Act forward in a cloture vote. Sixty votes were needed to bring the bill to a real vote, and only 58 made it. Many people focused on the fact that "Republicans blocked the bill" while noting that the vote was mostly along party lines, with just four Republicans voting for it: Senators Mike Lee, Dean Heller, Lisa Murkowski and Ted Cruz. A lot of the focus was on Senator Rand Paul, who is vocally opposed to NSA spying, but voted against this bill, saying he didn't think it went far enough (nearly all of the other no votes were because they felt it went too far). Bizarrely, after voting no on cloture, Rand Paul now claims he's sad -- and that "they probably needed my vote." Uh, yeah.

However, few have mentioned that there was only one Democrat who went the other way and voted against cloture: Senator Bill Nelson of Florida. Now there are reports from Alvaro Bedoya (a recent Senate staffer) that Nelson actually meant to vote for cloture, but voted no "by mistake." I have a request in with his office to see if this is accurate, but haven't heard back yet [see the update above if you haven't read it already]. However, that's quite an incredible mistake if true. It's certainly not unheard of for elected officials to accidentally vote the wrong way, but on major issues like this, they're usually pretty careful. And, yes, if Nelson had voted for cloture it would have only brought the vote up to 59, but that just highlights how important Rand Paul's vote was in killing off this attempt at reform.

No matter what, can't we at least expect our Senators to vote the way they actually planned to vote?

Filed Under: bill nelson, nsa, rand paul, surveillance, usa freedom act

USA Freedom Act Fails To Move Forward... For Incredibly Stupid Reasons

from the onto-the-next-round dept

So, this evening the USA Freedom Act failed to get the 60 votes it needed for cloture to "advance" to a full floor vote. It ended up at 58 to 42. There was a short debate prior to the vote, and the debate was... stupid. Yes, there are some legitimate concerns with the USA Freedom Act, mostly in that it doesn't go far enough. But that's not what the debate was about at all. You had a bunch of bizarrely clueless Senators, many of whom insisted they were against the act because it would take the bulk collection out of the hands of the NSA and put it into the hands of the telcos -- with the claim being that the NSA could keep that data safer. Senators Susan Collins and Saxby Chambliss kept harping on that point. But it's flat out wrong. Because the whole point of this is that the telcos already have this data. The debate is between "telcos have the data" and "telcos and NSA have the data." Arguing that telcos-only is inherently more likely to lead to a privacy violation makes no sense at all.

Chambliss went further, repeating (over and over again) that it's okay for the NSA to have this data because only 22 people have access to it. Of course, as Marcy Wheeler points out, that's not true. 22 people can authorize a search based on "reasonable articulable suspicion" but many others can access the results. Furthermore, as Harley Geiger points out, the problem is not even at the point of access, but collection, and there's nothing in the law that says the limit is always 22. Frankly, the whole 22 people debate seems strange to me. Is Chambliss really arguing that it's okay to violate the 4th Amendment if only 22 people can do it?

Separately, Senator Dianne Feinstein very reluctantly supported the bill, noting that she's very afraid that if this bill doesn't pass, the whole Section 215 program will go away. Frankly, that actually sounded like a good reason not to support the bill. She also kept insisting that it wasn't being abused because there were only "288" searches last year on that data. First of all, 288 already seems like quite a lot to me, and again we go to Marcy Wheeler for the fact check, where she points out that it's not 288 searches, but rather 288 "selectors," which could be queried multiple times (and those selectors could scoop up lots of data).

Hopefully, it turns out that Senator Feinstein's "fears" on this bill were accurate, and that it leads to the end of Section 215 altogether. But, the completely bogus debate over this effort just highlights how ridiculous the idea is that the Senate has any sort of "oversight" over the NSA, or that it has the interests of the Constitution or the public in mind.

Filed Under: bulk data collection, dianne feinstein, nsa, patrick leahy, privacy, saxby chambliss, senate, surveillance, surveillance reform, susan collins, usa freedom act

Former NSA, CIA Director Claims Only ISIS Likes USA Freedom Act, Even As James Clapper Supports It

from the ridiculousness dept

As the cloture vote is set to happen tonight on the Senate version of the USA Freedom Act, the hysterics are getting... well, more hysterical. Michael Hayden (former NSA and CIA director) and Michael Mukasey (former Attorney General) have an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal dubbing the bill "NSA Reform That Only ISIS Could Love," which is kind of hilarious given that current Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper (who usually sings in perfect harmony with Hayden) has come out in support of the bill. While the bill has some problems, it is still a step forward (and yes, I'm aware that not everyone agrees with that). But Hayden/Mukasey make a bunch of statements that are just not at all accurate. It starts off with the usual FUD about ISIS and then questions why Reid would present this bill given that:

In that threat environment, one would think that the last thing on the “to do” list of the 113th Congress would be to add to the grim news. Yet Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that he will bring to the floor the extravagantly misnamed USA Freedom Act, a major new bill exquisitely crafted to hobble the gathering of electronic intelligence.

Except that's not true. The bill is not designed to "hobble" electronic intelligence, but to respect at least some of our 4th Amendment rights, and to bar mass collection of the information without limits. Then there's this:

For starters, the bill ends the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of what is called telephone metadata. This includes the date, time, duration and telephone numbers for all calls, but not their content or the identity of the caller or called, and is information already held by telephone companies. The bill would substitute a cumbersome and untried process that would require the NSA, when it seeks to check on which telephone numbers have called or been called by a number reasonably associated with terrorist activity, to obtain a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court, and then scurry to each of the nation’s telephone-service providers to comb through the information that remains in their hands rather than in the NSA’s.

First off, they're simply wrong. It doesn't require a warrant, but a FISA court order under Section 215. It just limits how broad those orders can be. The reason it's not a warrant is you can't get such a broad warrant. Second, the "cumbersome and untried process" is neither cumbersome nor untried. It's how lots of investigations work today. When law enforcement needs info, it goes to court, gets a court order, and voila. And does anyone actually believe, in this digital age, that there's any actual "scurrying"? Hell, to make this process easier for the DEA in the past, AT&T was willing to embed employees with the DEA to give them faster access to the database. If anything, these are reasons why the bill doesn't go far enough. The idea that it somehow takes away US intelligence capabilities is ludicrous. Furthermore, it's already been noted that ISIS knows how to evade such surveillance: by not using electronic communications. So this has nothing to do with ISIS at all. At all.

Nothing in the bill requires the telephone companies to preserve the metadata for any prescribed period. Current Federal Communications Commission regulations impose an 18-month retention requirement, but administrative regulations are subject to change. It isn’t hard to envision companies that wish to offer subscribers the attraction of rapid destruction of these records, or a complaisant bureaucracy that lets them do it.

So we shouldn't pass this bill because at some future date the FCC might possibly allow companies not to keep these records? Really?

The bill’s imposition of the warrant requirement on the NSA would be more burdensome than what any assistant U.S. attorney must do to get metadata in a routine criminal case, which is simply to aver that the information is needed in connection with a criminal investigation—period.

Again, misleading in the extreme. When the DOJ is seeking metadata in a criminal case, it's seeking specific metadata concerning the crime being investigated. This is about stopping the collection of all phone records. Notice that Hayden and Mukasey never bother to explain this distinction. Because they're being incredibly dishonest.

There's much more in there, but nearly all of it is dishonest. It claims that "there is no immediate or emergency need" for the bill, totally leaving out the systematic violation of Americans' 4th Amendment rights and an independent review board finding the program illegal and unconstitutional and a President who asked Congress to end the program. Yet, Hayden and Mukasey insist this program -- which has yet to show a single successful example of being used to prevent terrorism -- has to remain in place? Really?

And, of course, Hayden and Mukasey have friends. Incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell similarly called out the specter of ISIS, despite the fact it's widely acknowledged that ISIS already knows how to avoid our surveillance efforts (and is focused on the middle east, while the USA Freedom Act is just about domestic phone records inside the US).

The USA Freedom Act has its problems, but it also has some important and useful aspects. The claim that it will somehow help ISIS by preventing such bulk data collection is simply ridiculous and untrue.

Filed Under: bulk collection, fud, isis, james clapper, michael hayden, michael mukasey, patrick leahy, surveillance, usa freedom act

Harry Reid Wants To Attach Part Of SOPA To Surveillance Reform Bill

from the that-would-be-a-mistake dept

See the update at the bottom of this post.

Late last night I started hearing rumors that Senator Harry Reid was looking to slip a little something extra into the USA Freedom Act: a key part of SOPA. As you should know by now, last week, Reid surprised many by moving for a cloture vote on the USA Freedom Act. While still controversial in civil liberties circles, many are supportive of this bill as a good first step in surveillance reform -- including EFF and ACLU -- while others are perhaps reasonably concerned about what the bill actually provides. Yesterday, the big tech companies came out in favor of it.

However, yesterday evening I heard through the grapevine that Reid also had a little "gift" he was planning to add to the bill, and I've spent a big part of last night tracking down any details I could find. Basically, Reid wants to attach a part of SOPA to the bill: the felony streaming provisions. You may recall that this was the dangerous plan that was a part of SOPA and a companion to PIPA (though not directly in it) that would have turned merely streaming infringing works into a felony. This got a ton of attention after Fight for the Future created its Free Justin Bieber campaign, after noting that Bieber came to fame by streaming lots of videos of music he didn't license the rights to. Even after SOPA died, the White House still listed the felony streaming stuff in its big wish list. And, just a few months ago, the Justice Department told Congress it wanted streaming to be a felony too.

The reality is that this would be a pretty big expansion of criminalizing copyright infringement. As we explained years ago, there's a reason why "performance" isn't considered a felony in copyright law. Expanding the criminalization of copyright, especially for something as simple as streaming content puts a ton of people at risk. And yes, according to Harvard law professor Jonathan Zittrain, someone doing what Bieber did would face jail time, which is ridiculous.

So why is Reid suddenly doing this? What we've heard is that it's a "favor" to his friends at UFC -- Ultimate Fighting Championship -- who are based in Las Vegas, in Reid's home state of Nevada. Reid and UFC go back for years, with UFC being big supporters of Reid, and UFC has worked with Reid on a number of campaigns. UFC has also been one of the biggest supporters of expanding and abusing copyright law for years. The organization has sued its biggest fans, has sued streaming sites like Justin.tv (and lost) and even claimed copyright on videos it has no rights to, taken by fans.

So it's no surprise that with Reid and UFC being so chummy -- while UFC has staked out a strong public position to expand copyright criminalization -- that Reid would like to do this "favor" for his friends. But it's a massive slap in the face to the tech industry -- Reid's second such massive slap this year. Remember, earlier this year, after the tech industry had finally, finally gotten a few important pieces (not nearly enough, but a great start) for patent reform to the finish line, Harry Reid got a phone call from the trial lawyers and killed the whole thing? If he actually goes through with this plan, it will be yet another massive slap in the face to Silicon Valley. Perhaps that's the reputation Harry Reid wants. The Senator who gives out personal favors to friends, and stands in the way of innovation. I can't imagine that will go over well in the long run. Furthermore, it's almost as if Reid has totally forgotten what happened around SOPA. I can assure him that those who fought against SOPA have not forgotten.

The last I've heard on this so far is that Reid is still looking for a bit more support to attach this to the USA Freedom Act. Hopefully no one gives it to him, and this idea simply goes back in the trash can where it belongs.

Update: Senator Reid's office has posted a response to this story claiming that this is all spin from "Republicans who want to tank" the USA Freedom Act. That's not actually true. While I'm not going to reveal my (multiple) sources on this, Reid's explanation is not at all accurate. We confirmed this with multiple sources -- nearly all of whom are in favor of the USA Freedom Act. We did hear one rumor that there was an effort under way to get a Republican on board to support this plan, but we didn't report that because we couldn't get detailed confirmation on it. What we're now hearing from others, however, is that Reid's office is trying to point the finger directly at one specific Republican Senator, and we have a request in to his office to see if he wants to comment.

Filed Under: copyright, criminalization, felony streaming, harry reid, justin bieber, over criminalization, streaming, ufc, usa freedom act
Companies: ufc, zuffa

Senator Harry Reid Going To Try To Push Through USA Freedom Act Before GOP Takes Over Senate

from the here-we-go dept

There were some rumors that, with the GOP about to take over the Senate, the Democratic leadership might try to finally move forward with the USA Freedom Act. The Senate bill has been languishing, despite it being considered a "compromise" bill that was widely acceptable to both intelligence community folks and many in the civil liberties community. Over the last few months, civil liberties and consumer activists groups have been growing less pleased with the bill, as the deeper they've explored it, the more worried they've become about some of how it might be abused. However, it's still considered by many to be a good start, if not (in any way) a perfect bill.

And, now, Senator Harry Reid has made the move to push forward with the bill in the lame duck session before control of the Senate flips.

Reid filed for cloture on the measure late Wednesday, a surprising move intended to address the National Security Agency's mass surveillance practices before Republicans take over the Senate next year. To advance further, the legislation would need 60 votes to end debate on the measure, and then a majority vote to pass it through the chamber.

It will be interesting to see if they actually have the 60 votes. Part of the delay has been that they weren't sure that there really were enough votes. And there were still pressures by intelligence community supporters to water down the bill (despite James Clapper saying the bill is okay as is) and by Senators Wyden and Udall to add more privacy and civil liberties protections. If they're moving for cloture, it may mean that Reid is confident that they have the votes... or it's a recognition that it's now or never given the change in control that will happen in January. We'll find out soon enough if this means there's enough support, or if Reid just threw a Hail Mary as a final ploy.

Filed Under: bulk collection, congress, harry reid, mass surveillance, nsa, patrick leahy, senate, surveillance, usa freedom act

Congress Wants To Push Dangerous Cybersecurity Bill After The Election, Says US Economy Depends On It

from the bad-ideas dept

Reports are coming out that Congress is looking to push forward with bad cybersecurity legislation after the election, but before the new Congress takes over in January. We've discussed the bill in question, CISA, before. The main idea behind it is to immunize companies from liability if they share certain information with the government. Supporters of the bill note that the information sharing is entirely voluntary, but by taking away the liability it also makes it a lot more likely that companies will choose to give information to the government, and it's not yet clear why the government really needs that information. But the FUD levels are high, with Senator Saxby Chambliss actually suggesting the entire economy is at stake here:

"If we wait another year, we are really risking the economy of the United States."

Oh, come on. People have been saying this for years -- along with the whole "cyber pearl harbor" claims -- but have failed to present any explanation or details of how (1) there's a real risk to the economy or (2) how current laws block necessary solutions. On top of that, no one seems willing to explain how further information sharing will actually help stop online attacks. Remember, this is the same federal government that didn't even notice that the White House's own network had been breached until some other country told us about it. And yet, we now believe that if only US companies were feeding more information to the NSA that they'd magically be able to stop attacks (and save the economy?). That seems unlikely.

It also sounds like there may be some sort of potential trade-off, in which Congress will try to lump this bill with the USA Freedom Act, as the White House is said to be focused on surveillance reform over the cybersecurity bill. But, the reality is that the two are in many ways attached. And there are increasing worries that the final result on the USA Freedom Act will, in some ways, actually (yet again) enhance the NSA, rather than hold it back. Combine that with a cybersecurity bill that will give the NSA even more ways to get our data, and the end result could be the surveillance state increasing, rather than shrinking, with no actual benefit to the American public. There would be fewer privacy protections and just some arm waving about saving the US economy.

Filed Under: cisa, cispa, cybersecurity, economy, fud, nsa, saxby chambliss, sharing, surveillance, usa freedom act

Senator Saxby Chambliss Insists That NSA Reform Would Help ISIS... Despite Having Nothing To Do With ISIS Surveillance

from the pure-unadulterated-fud dept

The latest version of the USA Freedom Act is still on the boards, representing a big improvement in somewhat limiting NSA bulk surveillance on Americans. It's not great, but it's a step in the right direction, which would be more than has happened in decades. That said, never underestimate the ability of people spewing FUD. Senator Saxby Chambliss, one of the biggest kneejerk defenders of the surveillance state, has apparently decided that this minor curtailing of bulk surveillance efforts will help ISIS and therefore we shouldn't do it.

“If you want to take away the ability to monitor ISIS, then you eliminate the tools that are eliminated in the Leahy bill,” Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a weekend Hill report. “I can’t imagine anybody wanting to do that.”

This is the logic of fear, because it has no basis in reality. Most of the USA Freedom Act is about whether or not the NSA can do bulk collection of records in the US on US persons. It has no impact on Executive Order 12333 where most ISIS surveillance is almost certainly taking place. In short, there's nothing in the USA Freedom Act that has any real impact on ISIS surveillance.

Basically, you just have surveillance state defenders using the most convenient bogeyman, in this case ISIS, to seek more power for the surveillance state, logic and reality be damned. The whole thing is just a cynical ploy to defend the surveillance state at all costs. But, under that idiotic logic, we might as well do away with the 4th Amendment altogether. Hell, why not just mandate that every human being in the US walk around with a camera and microphone recording everything they say and do -- all automatically shipped off to NSA headquarters at Ft. Meade for analysis? That might help stop ISIS. Just like collecting all phone records might. But in all reality it won't. At all. So it's a cowardly, shameful FUD suggestion from a cynical Chambliss. He's not looking out for the American people or their rights. He's looking out for the surveillance state.

Thankfully, Senator Patrick Leahy (the sponsor of the USA Freedom Act) quickly hit back, though not quite as strongly as he could have:

Leahy himself dismissed such claims.

“We’re always going to face threats,” Leahy said in the report. “The biggest one we can face is the threat to our own liberties and our own privacy.”

That's a message that doesn't seem particularly popular among surveillance state defenders.

Filed Under: eo 12333, executive order 12333, isis, nsa, patrick leahy, saxby chambliss, surveillance, usa freedom act