Since the revelations about the NSA from Edward Snowden’s leaks last year, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner, who authored the Patriot Act, has come out in opposition to certain NSA surveillance practices, particularly bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata.
The NSA says that its authority to vacuum up all Americans’ call records comes from the Patriot Act’s Section 215. Sensenbrenner says that “no fair reading of the text would allow for this program.” In other words, the NSA is acting beyond the authority granted to it by law.
In testimony yesterday, Sensenbrenner said Congress is likely to take away NSA’s bulk collection capabilities. Here he is giving the DOJ’s James Cole a piece of his mind:
I wonder if there's such a guarantee that once taken from NSA, the capability is gone. E.g., I take your key to the cooky jar and call it problem-solved…I get away with that because I don't talk about the other keys and who has them. Isn't it the case that Israeli companies have been involved here?
Also not sure I buy Sensenbrenner/MisterPatriotAct as new-found patriot/libertarian. Been wary of that schtick since FOX tried to rehab Oliver North….among others. You can watch all kinds of criminals promoted as heros… If they try it with Sensenbrenner, maybe Stalin was otherwise occupied.
"Congress never did intend to…" LOL! As if they #@$!ing read it when they passed it!
I 100% agree with them.I think that will be good.
This coming from the same guy who helped write the incredibly-misnamed "Patriot Act". What unmitigated chutzpah these zio-tools have.
I find it difficult to believe that for someone who wrote the Patriot Act in less than 30 days (signed by Dubya on Oct 26, 2001 in response to the 9/11 incident) it's taken 12 years for him to realize that it's not being implemented that way he wanted. Even before the ink was dry the Bush Administration was already "interpreting" the document the way they wanted. Perhaps if Bush had been a Democrat Sensenbrenner might have picked up on that a little sooner, eh? …nah…
This is very shocked news for us. How they do that so easily.?
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