Oh, irony. Only a day after WikiLeaks revealed that the NSA has been spying on the past three French presidents as well as many French officials, France’s lower house adopted the very controversial surveillance law. According to politicians from all parties, France needs a comprehensive intelligence law following the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Yet, in many ways, this law is even broader than the Patriot Act.
Source: TechCrunch
Access congratulates the U.S. Senate for approving the USA FREEDOM Act. The legislation will ban bulk collection under some U.S. surveillance powers, increase transparency, and improve accountability. While many more reforms to U.S. and other surveillance programs are needed, this is an important step toward comprehensive surveillance reform. Read our full statement here »
The domestic bulk-collection program, which quickly emerged as an outlier among the programs Snowden revealed, rested on a legal interpretation of a statute that redefined the word “relevant” as meaning “everything.” It was ostensibly authorized by the Patriot Act despite the fact that the law’s author, who didn’t know it was being used that way, vociferously objected as soon as he found out. It has repeatedly been determined to be illegal, not only by legal experts and blue-ribbon panels, but just last month by a federal appellate court. It has had no documented positive impact on national security. And it represented a wildly unprecedented leap into domestic spying by an agency whose mandate has historically been foreign.
Everything wrong about the Patriot Act in one head-spinning paragraph.
Section 215 expired last night, and the effects thus far have been devastating.
Twitter tells the US govt. what’s at risk #IfThePatriotActExpires.
“What you’re doing, essentially, is you’re playing national security Russian roulette,” one senior administration official said of allowing the powers to lapse. That prospect appears increasingly likely with the measure, the USA Freedom Act, stalled and lawmakers in their home states and districts during a congressional recess.
Twitter tells the US govt. what’s at risk #IfThePatriotActExpires.
We’re in uncharted waters,” another senior member of the administration said at a briefing organized by the White House, where three officials spoke with reporters about the consequences of inaction by Congress. “We have not had to confront addressing the terrorist threat without these authorities, and it’s going to be fraught with unnecessary risk.
Twitter tells the US govt. what’s at risk #IfThePatriotActExpires.
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