Even as the Senate remains at an impasse over the future of US domestic surveillance powers, the National Security Agency will be legally unable to collect US phone records in bulk by the time Congress returns from its Memorial Day vacation.
The administration, as suggested in a memo it sent Congress on Wednesday, declined to ask a secret surveillance court for another 90-day extension of the order necessary to collect US phone metadata in bulk. The filing deadline was Friday, hours before the Senate failed to come to terms on a bill that would have formally repealed the NSA domestic surveillance program.
“We did not file an application for reauthorization,” an administration official confirmed to the Guardian on Saturday.
The administration decision ensures that beginning at 5pm ET on 1 June, for the first time since October 2001 the NSA will no longer collect en masse Americans’ phone records.
Now currently Mitch McConnell has a plan to reconvene the Senate on May 31st in a last ditch effort to save the program, but failing that it appears that the program will come to a close.
And it seems to me that the White House is not exactly working hard to preserve it either.
Which is understandable considering that we now know that the domestic spying program has not stopped any major acts of terrorism.
Well I for one am going to keep a close eye on this, and hopefully we will soon to able to pop a few champagne corks in celebration of the end to the Bush era domestic spying program.
It has obviously been such a long time since any humans made a tin can phone that they have forgotten the string has to be taut between them for it to work! Anybody else remember that?
ReplyDeleteAnybody else remember that?
DeleteYes. People unclear on the concept. I've also seen some TV commercial with tin cans and a slack string. Sigh.
I don't believe for a second that the NSA will stop collecting phone records without a warrant, regardless of the legality of the action. NSA will continue its domestic spying program and if it gets caught, all its spokesperson has to do is either claim that doing so prevented some unspecified act of terrorism, or simply, "Oops, it was an oversight, us bad!" And congress and the White House (which I don't believe wants this program to end any more than the NSA does) will both be all, "Oh, OK!"
ReplyDeleteWhatever happens, one thing is certain: NSA is not going to stop doing bulk collection of Americans' phone records. No way.
I agree - more in my comment
DeleteI apologize for being off-topic but in your previous post you showed a picture of Track supposedly at the picnic in Kentucky. Has he had an amputation? Just a really bad photo? Or photoshpped? He seems to be missing one of his legs.
ReplyDeleteI'll keep my champagne on ice until I see proof. I have a feeling it'll be back under a different name with a different set of rules. I'm saying this because I just got through a battle with my cable/phone company who wouldn't allow me to see my own call log (usually it's one click on my home page and it shows the call, time, duration, whom I called and whom I received calls from). I was being charged for two four hour calls no one in my house made. They can't find an acceptable excuse, but when I finally got it on paper, the calls weren't there and the charges were gone. After being told that the line belonged to me and I'm responsible no matter who had access. We're talking about two long distance calls that were over 400 bucks each. For the trouble, they're sending me a twenty buck gift certificate.
ReplyDelete"The alphabet soup will never stop collecting bulk data and profiling, it's their job. Moreover, it will never go away. It's just too cheap and easy" - GOODSTUFF
ReplyDelete"I'm more scared of little brother than big bother" - GOODSTUFF
The data collection will just be farmed out
"Legally" being the operative word here...
ReplyDeleteI don't think anyone here trusts them too much.