A question for you ….. why does Friday’s FISA victory in the House of Reps even matter in light of this?
NSA’s Domestic Spying Grows As Agency Sweeps Up Data
Washington Post By SIOBHAN GORMAN
March 10, 2008; Page A1WASHINGTON, D.C. — Five years ago, Congress killed an experimental Pentagon antiterrorism program meant to vacuum up electronic data about people in the U.S. to search for suspicious patterns. Opponents called it too broad an intrusion on Americans’ privacy, even after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. But the data-sifting effort didn’t disappear. The National Security Agency, once confined to foreign surveillance, has been building essentially the same system.
Stunning Report On NSA Domestic Spying Confirms ACLU Warnings
via Crooks and Liars by Nicole Belle on 3/12/08
ACLU:
The American Civil Liberties Union responded today to a stunning new report that the NSA has effectively revived the Orwellian “Total Information Awareness” domestic-spying program that was banned by Congress in 2003. In response, the ACLU said that it was filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for more information about the spying. And, the group announced that it was moving its “Surveillance Clock” one minute closer to midnight.
“Congress shut down TIA because it represented a massive and unjustified governmental intrusion into the personal lives of Americans,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington Legislative Office of the ACLU. “Now we find out that the security agencies are pushing ahead with the program anyway, despite that clear congressional prohibition. The program described by current and former intelligence officials in Monday’s Wall Street Journal could be modeled on Orwell’s Big Brother.”
The ACLU said the new report confirmed its past warnings that the NSA was engaging in extremely broad-based data mining that was violating the privacy of vast numbers of Americans.
TPM has more…
By itself, FISA has some utility. If it’s enforced, it will prevent the government from listening in on or recording all conversations and transactions, then cherry-picking the ones they want later. Son-Of-TIA certainly needs to go, as well, but one less unlimited power seems like a good first step.
I think the key is enforcement, though. If Congress isn’t willing to enforce the laws that limit a President’s power, then we’re screwed no matter what the law is.