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posted by janrinok on Sunday August 18 2019, @05:46AM   Printer-friendly
from the we're-not-listening....but-we-might dept.

Breaking a long silence about a high-profile National Security Agency program that sifts records of Americans' telephone calls and text messages in search of terrorists, the Trump administration on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that the system has been indefinitely shut down — but asked Congress to extend its legal basis anyway.

In a letter to Congress delivered on Thursday and obtained by The New York Times, the administration urged lawmakers to make permanent the legal authority for the National Security Agency to gain access to logs of Americans' domestic communications, the USA Freedom Act. The law, enacted after the intelligence contractor Edward J. Snowden revealed the existence of the program in 2013, is set to expire in December, but the Trump administration wants it made permanent.

The unclassified letter, signed on Wednesday by Dan Coats in one of his last acts as the director of National Intelligence, also conceded that the N.S.A. has indefinitely shut down that program after recurring technical difficulties repeatedly caused it to collect more records than it had legal authority to gather. That fact has previously been reported, but the administration had refused to officially confirm its status.

[...] The executive branch had been internally divided over whether to push for an extension of the part of the Freedom Act that authorizes the phone records program. Months ago, the N.S.A. presented a bleak assessment of the program to the White House, saying it carried high costs and few benefits, but some officials argued that it made sense to keep the legal authority in case technical solutions emerged to make it work better, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations.

Trump Administration Asks Congress to Reauthorize N.S.A.'s Deactivated Call Records Program


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  • (Score: 5, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 18 2019, @06:43AM (9 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 18 2019, @06:43AM (#881678) Journal

    As much as Trump is hated over at the House, there will probably be a 3-ring circus, complete with clowns falling on their faces, in their rush to comply with Trump's request.

    In this instance, I can't decide if Trump is being used, or he really believes that this surveillance is somehow "good" or "useful" or even "desirable". Given that he's not a very "good" man to start with, nor is he especially bright, the two possibilities are about as likely.

    Hey, Donald! 🖕🏽 Go find something more useful to do, like hitting a ball around in a quicksand course!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @02:31PM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @02:31PM (#881746)

    In this instance, I can't decide if Trump is being used, or he really believes that this surveillance is somehow "good" or "useful" or even "desirable".

    Sorry, but you do not understand how Trump functions at all. You are just as bad as the libtards. Trump does not give a shit about surveillance or anything else, he just cares about "making deals". Obviously he did this in trade for something else.

    • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday August 18 2019, @02:39PM (4 children)

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Sunday August 18 2019, @02:39PM (#881748) Journal

      Maybe he got another 100 miles of The Wall in return?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @03:00PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @03:00PM (#881755)

        More likely something to do with Epstein.

        • (Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday August 18 2019, @04:59PM (1 child)

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday August 18 2019, @04:59PM (#881804) Homepage

          No, it's so the Jews can keep getting data on Americans who are a threat to their agenda.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @07:54PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 19 2019, @07:54PM (#882292)

            He's not trolling, whether you agree or not, so stop abusing the mod system, you dumb bitch.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @04:56PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @04:56PM (#881801)

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SZ2L-R8NgrA [youtube.com]

        GOP Jesus lololol runaway is right on message

    • (Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @04:26PM (2 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @04:26PM (#881791)

      Hey, libertarians may be a bit naive but "libtard" is a bit harsh.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @05:23PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @05:23PM (#881808)

        I got called a libtard for not believing the elites are reptilians who plan to purge the surface of the earth to live in their underground bases theory. It somewhat does make sense since it is considered moral for reptiles to eat the young of their own species, humans generally abhor that practice.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @06:54PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 18 2019, @06:54PM (#881832)

          Not to be too pedantic, but there is a difference between "libtard" and "lizardtard" and "libertariantard". Primarily the difference is the number of letters. All are the same with regard to the deprecated use of "-tard", which is no longer best practice, and tends to be used only by those who are somewhat behind the times, a little late in development, one might say.