While the administration and Congressional leadership have been shrugging off the NSA surveillance scandals as overblown, several senators are pushing new legislation aimed at limiting the scope of some of the more onerous of the NSA schemes.
Sens. Mark Udall (D – CO) and Ron Wyden (D – OR) have proposed a bill (pdf) that would modify the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) related to data collection, requiring officials to show any collection is actually relevant to an already authorized investigation.
Having “reasonable grounds” to believe the data might conceivably be relevant would seem like a relatively low bar, but it would be dramatically more than appears to be required at the moment, since the NSA has been able to get FISA approval to collect meta-data on literally all of the phone calls coming out of major telecom companies’ customers, even though clearly they have no reason to believe that the vast majority of phone calls made in the United States are automatically relevant to ongoing terror probes.
Another bill is going with Sens. Jeff Merkley (D – OR) and Mike Lee (R – UT) trying to declassify the court rulings that authorized some of the largest NSA surveillance schemes, which are collecting huge amounts of data on all Americans.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D – NV) said he was willing to “look at” the proposals, but added that they will have to go through the slow-moving committee process and would not be given any special treatment in response to the revelations of huge amounts of ongoing surveillance. Since committee leaders like Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D – CA) are fine with the surveillance, getting reforms even considered is going to be a difficult task indeed.
"…getting reforms even considered is going to be a difficult task indeed…" Maybe the odds will go up if those elected who support the police state are voted out of office. I'm sure that there are enough concerned citizens in California who abhor the government trolling thru their phone calls and emails.
In a not shell
Now would the government want to know everything
about us, if it had no intention to control us?
A bill to restrain what is already unconstitutional – and that includes the FISA court. How quaint. I modestly propose a far more effective solution to deal with NSA spying: arrest everyone in the NSA (contractors, Feds, politicos, all of them), execute them for treason, and then detonate a nuke on the server farm in Utah where they're storing the data.
Right now, you should be on your way to your hidden shelter, already, because soon there will be some guys wearing black suits and dark shades knocking at your door, Valerianus.
Watch your six and don't use small airplanes to get away!
This is rich!
Obama is going to visit my home country Germany next week. But german newspapers and online-magazines profess themselves to keep a a total blackout of critical comments regarding Obama's policies at home and abroad, already.
I am a regular contributor in many policy-forums in Germany. But actually, I feel completely silenced. None of my comments, which state nothing but the facts in a polite manner, gets published anywhere, whatsoever.
It looks like the long arm of the NSA is reaching over the pond all the way to Europe, already.
Traitors, Traitors, Traitors. The Democrat/Republican leadership are criminals and traitors. What they have accomplished in 2013 is the completion of the coup from sept 11, 2001. The coup is the takeover of the U.S. Constitution with a National Security Police State that only gives its liberties to the establishment to run roughshod over the rest of us.