Former CIA and NSA employee source of intelligence leaks

[Zanza]

Not surprised. I hope there is a way to make at least our own intelligence services obey the law again. If these institutions get a free reign outside of meaningful legislative control they become a threat instead of providing the security they are meant for.

[grumbler]

...
So it took 7 years from the BND noticing that some of their activities are not covered by their mandate and then informing the government about it. The German articles say that BND was possibly afraid to get cut off from NSA intel if they didn't follow through on requests.

That's an understandable fear, but it is a political decision, not an intelligence one, and the BND should have referred it to their political masters.

[jimmy olsen]

Doesn't go as far as I'd like, but it's a move in the right direction.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/04/28/usa_freedom_act_update_to_patriot_act_has_bipartisan_cosponsors_would_end.html

Bipartisan Bill Would Curtail NSA Data Collection
by Beth Ethier

Republicans and Democrats in the Senate agree: The NSA's surveillance powers are ready for a haircut.


A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate on Tuesday would end the bulk collection of Americans' telephone records by the National Security Agency under provisions in the original Patriot Act. The "Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring" (USA FREEDOM) Act of 2015 is co-sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Mike Lee (R-UT), and eight other members and is designed to address the "sunset" date of June 1 on some of the most controversial surveillance programs enacted after the 9/11 attacks.

The bill would require the NSA to seek phone records on individuals from their service providers rather than compiling the information in bulk, and would free up companies that receive requests to disclose at least the volume of records they turn over to the government. It would also "provide for an advocate for the public's privacy rights at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which generally hears only the government's side of an argument," according to the Washington Post. The FISC approves government requests for information in more than 99 percent of the cases it hears.

The Leahy-Lee bill comes on the heels of a proposal by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to extend the data collection program in its current form until the year 2020. But with the exception of Intelligence Committe Chairman Richard Burr, McConnell's "straight reauthorization" idea hasn't caught on with the Senate GOP. Presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz is one of five Republicans who have already signed on to the Leahy-Lee bill. In a statement sent to Slate by email, Sen. Cruz said that "Americans deserve nothing less" than reforms to keep them safe from terrorism while safeguarding their privacy.

The USA FREEDOM Act of 2015 strikes the right balance by ending the National Security Agency's unfettered data collection program and implementing other surveillance reforms, while at the same time preserving the government's ability to obtain information to track down terrorists when it has sufficient justification and support for doing so.

The Washington Post reports that an identical bill will be introduced in the House of Representatives by Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. A similar measure passed the House by a wide margin in 2013.

A different bill was introducted in the House back in March to address the issue but has been languishing in committee. Even if it gets to a floor vote, it's not clear what the chances of passage are for the Surveillance State Repeal Act, which takes the straightforward approach of simply "repeal[ing] the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008."

[The Minsky Moment]

For those interested, the oral argument to the Second Circuit (federal appeals court) in the ACLU challenge was televised by CSPAN: http://www.c-span.org/video/?321163-1/aclu-v-clapper-oral-argument-phone-record-surveillance

Judge Gerald Lynch was on the panel - he is very sharp and was quite active asking questions of the litigants.

If Timmy had watched this then he wouldn't have been surprised today.

[HisMajestyBOB]

 "Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring" (USA FREEDOM)

[garbon]

And you hate freedom because?

[Valmy]

"Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring" (USA FREEDOM)

Congress and its branding needs. I swear everything in this country is an advertisement. But I guess that has been true for 200 years.

[jimmy olsen]

House votes overwhelmingly to end bulk collection of phone data.

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-advances-bill-end-nsas-bulk-collection-phone-records-n358541

[jimmy olsen]

Looks like the House and the Senate are so far apart the whole law might be allowed to lapse.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-house-will-vote-to-reform-nsa-phone-spying-what-will-the-senate-do/2015/05/13/31be97aa-f97f-11e4-9030-b4732caefe81_story.html

The Washington Post

Politics
House approves measure ending NSA bulk phone data collection program
   
A bill that would end the National Security Agency's mass collection of phone records won broad support in the U.S. House on Wednesday, but key Republican leaders in the Senate remain unconvinced of the need for reform as a crucial deadline approaches.

The House approved the USA Freedom Act, which would keep vast troves of phone "metadata" out of government hands as well as make other revisions to the federal government's surveillance practices, on a 338-to-88 afternoon vote. Similar legislation was adopted last year in the House before stalling in the Senate.

Ahead of the vote Wednesday, Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said the bill would "protect our foreign intelligence capabilities" and called on the Senate to follow suit.

"All I know is, these programs expire at the end of this month. They are critically important to keep Americans safe," he said. "The House is going to act, and I would hope the Senate would act soon as well."

But Republican Senate leaders want the agency to maintain its ability to gather the records in the hopes of preventing a terrorist attack. On the other extreme are lawmakers such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a presidential candidate, who want the law underpinning the NSA program to expire altogether.

Congress must act by June 1 or the NSA's existing authority, under Section 215 of the 2001 Patriot Act, lapses, and along with it not only the phone records program but also other intelligence authorities that the government says are crucial to detecting and preventing terrorist attacks.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said he plans to move forward with a renewal of the NSA's existing authority. A federal appeals court in New York ruled last week that that law did not provide sufficient legal authority for the phone records program, but key backers of the program say they believe no changes to the law are necessary.

McConnell's top leadership deputy, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), took to the Senate floor Wednesday morning to defend the current surveillance programs and accuse their critics of overstating the risks to civil liberties.


"I believe if we allow these provisions to expire, our homeland security will be at a much greater risk," Cornyn said. "It's not enough to say to the American people, 'Well, we will deploy all of the tools available to law enforcement to prosecute the person that murders innocent people.' We need to keep the commitment to protect them from that innocent slaughter in the first place, and the only way we do that is by using legitimate tools of intelligence, like this program."

Democrats and a significant bloc of Republicans in the Senate are backing the overhauls set out in the House bill, as is President Obama. A White House statement issued Tuesday offered support for the bill, and Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. sent a letter to congressional leaders calling it "a reasonable compromise that preserves vital national security authorities, enhances privacy and civil liberties and codifies requirements for increased transparency."

House members of both parties spoke up for the legislation Wednesday on the floor. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.), a former CIA officer, said the bill "strikes the right balance between privacy and security."

"I've seen firsthand the value these programs bring," he said, "but I also know if Americans don't feel they can trust their own government, we're losing the battle right here at home."

"This is a strong bill and should advance with such an overwhelming majority that it compels the Senate to act," said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Across the Capitol, Sen. Mike Lee (Utah), a leading Republican backer of surveillance revisions, spoke on the Senate floor Tuesday calling for adoption of the House bill, which is rooted in bipartisan negotiations among members of the House and Senate.

"This is a compromise, an important compromise that will enable us to protect Americans' privacy while giving the government the tools it needs to keep us safe," Lee said. "It is a bill, I think, we should take up and pass as soon as they have voted."


Under the current program, the NSA collects millions of Americans' phone records daily from U.S. phone companies, stores them in a database and, with a judge's permission, searches on numbers that analysts reasonably suspect are linked to a foreign terrorist group. The mass collection, which began after the 2001 terrorist attacks, was revealed in June 2013 by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

The resulting outcry moved Obama to call for an end to the government's gathering of the records, but he wanted Congress to find a way to preserve the agency's ability to gain access to records of suspected terrorists.

Under the USA Freedom Act, the phone metadata — that is, records of phone numbers, call dates, times and durations — would be retained by telecommunications companies, not by the government. Those records could still be searched by the NSA under a court order specifying a "selection term" that identifies a particular person, account or address — not an entire phone or Internet company, or a broad geographic region, such as a state, city or even Zip code.

Lee said that approach offers the right balance between security and civil liberties: "The proper American response to government overreach involves setting clear limits — limits that will allow the people to hold the government accountable."

But his Republican colleagues have serious doubts. Cornyn, for instance, cited objections lodged by former attorney general Michael Mukasey, who called the record-search procedures established by the USA Freedom Act and backed by Obama a "Rube Goldberg procedure" in a Wednesday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he saw little difference between letting the current program expire and passing the House bill.

"When you do away with bulk storage, you basically have an unworkable system in real time, and part of this program's design is that it works in real time. We're ahead of a threat. We don't want to be behind a threat."


Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said the prominent Republican critics of bulk surveillance — who include Lee and Paul, who has threatened to filibuster an extension of current law — don't represent the views of most Senate Republicans. "They're the outliers here," he said.

The House bill also would end bulk collection of business records not only under Section 215, but under other national security authorities as well. It would require the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which meets in secret, to declassify significant legal decisions. It would provide for an advocate for the public's privacy rights at the court, which generally hears only the government's side of an argument. And it would grant technology companies more leeway to report on the scale of national security data requests.

Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said that if the Senate passes a simple extension of the current law — for any length of time — it would go "absolutely nowhere" in the House.

"The fact of the matter is, most of the people who voted against the bill [in the House] want to go even further on the civil liberties side," he said in an interview. "It's not a question of whether there are people here that want to do a clean reauthorization like Senator McConnell."

Boehner declined to comment on the wrangling across the Capitol on Wednesday: "The House is going to do its job. We'll let the Senate do their job."