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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday September 28 2017, @12:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-such-agency dept.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-25/nsa-targeted-106-000-foreigners-in-spy-program-up-for-renewal

The U.S. National Security Agency conducted targeted surveillance over the past year against 106,000 foreigners suspected of being involved in terrorism and other crimes, using powers granted in a controversial section of law that's set to expire at the end of this year.

The number of foreigners targeted under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act rose from 94,000 in fiscal year 2015, according to U.S. intelligence officials, who asked not to be identified discussing the information. The program lets agencies collect the content of emails and other communications from suspected foreign criminals operating outside the U.S., but it has become a flash point with some lawmakers for potential infringement of Americans' constitutional rights.

Congress has to decide by year-end whether to renew the NSA's power under Section 702, a program that came to light when former government contractor Edward Snowden revealed classified government documents in 2013. While the intelligence officials cautioned that changes would limit its effectiveness, lawmakers including Senate Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, have indicated they'll seek adjustments to ensure against abuses.


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  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:26PM (1 child)

    by crafoo (6639) on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:26PM (#574410)

    where do you think they got the list of 106k targets in the first place? It certainly wasn't through their own incompetent top-heavy bureaucracy. I imagine there are whole floors of people doing nothing but generating power point reports of budgets and schedules. Another floor tracks progress of the power point presentation team's completion status. Yet another is busy transitioning their internal time tracking and "automated" budget tools to a new system. The new system is twice as slow and requires twice as many people administering it despite the opposite being promised. We need two floors of people doing budgets and schedules now.

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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:51PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Thursday September 28 2017, @04:51PM (#574427)

    > We need two floors of people doing budgets and schedules now.

    I heard that, while our bridges and schools are crumbling, the pentagon just got voted a 700,000,000,000 dollars budget?
    It is no small feat, and you need lots of budget and scheduling people, to burn through about 2,000,000,000 dollars PER DAY!