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Senators demand answers on expired surveillance programs:
Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Ut.) on Thursday pressed the Trump administration on whether and how mass surveillance programs authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act have been halted since the act's expiration.
The letter to Attorney General William Barr and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe raises concerns that the administration may be be continuing to conduct surveillance operations by relying on Executive Order 12333.
The order, issued on 1981, has been used before to conduct operations without statutory authorization or congressional oversight.
"Congress and the American people have a right to know if this or any other administration is spying on people in the United States outside of express congressional approval, with no or diminished guardrails," Sens. Leahy and Lee wrote.
"The rights of all Americans depend on their government exercising its power responsibly, adhering to the rule of law, and upholding its duty to act transparently. Any surveillance conducted in the absence of statutory authorities and congressional oversight would be extraordinarily concerning and illegal."
Reauthorization of the key FISA provisions under the USA Freedom Act has stalled.
(Score: 2) by leon_the_cat on Thursday July 23 2020, @05:54AM (4 children)
but seriously it stands for "Uniting and Strengthening America by Fulfilling Rights and Ensuring Effective Discipline Over Monitoring"
i wish that was a joke :(
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Thursday July 23 2020, @06:09AM (3 children)
All US bills of late are pathetic backronyms that describe the exact reverse of what they really are. Ths USA-PATRIOT act? Only patriotic in a third-Reich kind of way. The US EARN-IT act? How we "earned" online platforms turning into snitches and insecure cryptography, I'll never know.
The list is endless.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:27AM
For those that don't know, they have software to generate those backronyms and bill titles. You put in some keywords about the legislation and it spits out candidates. Which just goes to show how sad or rushed some of those bills are when the person who wrote it didn't take the five minutes necessary to generate a good name. Or how they've been holding them for just this sort of opportunity, when it is too perfect.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @02:12PM
Apparently we earned those things by failing to assassinate the key figures propping them up. A few politicians get shot and as if by magic, they start caring what the people think. Remember, there's less than a thousand of them.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 23 2020, @08:49PM
They are guilty of sedition. The People need to do their job and execute them.