Despite the weekend expiry of several provisions of the Patriot Act, the FBI illegally kept its surveillance plane scheme going unchecked, and without any attempts to get a judge’s approval for the program.
The low-flying spy planes comb densely populated parts of the United States, pretending to be cellphone towers in an effort to trick Americans’ cellphones into giving them private data by the thousands, and collecting that data en masse.
The program was in a serious legal grey area in the first place, resting on provisions allowing wholesale surveillance to try to root out “lone wolf” terrorists. Even when those provisions were off the books, however, the FBI kept the flights going, more illegally than ever.
The Senate had been looking into the matter before, complaining that wholesale targeting of Americans’ private data wasn’t okay just because the spy planes were in public airspace, and that effort will hopefully grow with the FBI thumbing its nose at any pretense of oversight.
Anyone surprised. And what will the punishment be?
Whatever happened to the FBI? There was a time when appearing to always be within the law was such a priority for them. Now, violating laws has become their sole mission it seems.
The "politically correct" policy of "looking forward, not backward" as popularized by the current occupant has resulted in a mind-state where people expect that "evil-doers" and corrupt politicians (I fail to see the difference) will have their hands slapped and then it's business as usual. We're being conditioned to believe that "for the good of the country/state/town/village" we can't afford to penalize those who break our laws as long as they are working "for the good of the…"
And so, torturers and war criminals are allowed to claim "Executive Privilege" and walk free and either continue on in their current positions (especially politicians) or retire in lieu of prosecution and then travel the country/world collecting monumental speaking fees advocating for more of whatever they believe will bring them more power and prestige – and never smell the inside of a prison. The American people, who have, by sitting on our hands, allowed this to come about, deserve what we get.