| WELCOME |
|
comments, ephemera, speculation, etc. (protected political speech and personal opinion) 2024- 2024-04-17 d TWILIGHT OF FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION OUR
KHAZAR BIG BROTHER WANTS TO COMPEL
MANY OTHERS TO BECOME SNITCHES Supercharged
Spying Provision Buried In
"Terrifying" FISA 702
Reauthorization
On Monday, the House finalized procedural business on a bill to reauthorize the nation's warrantless surveillance powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) called "one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history."  "I will do
everything in my power to stop it from passing in
the Senate," said Wyden in a Friday post to X.
In a Sunday night thread on X from Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, breaks down why this is so 'terrifying.' "Buried in the
Section 702 reauthorization bill (RISAA) passed by
the House on Friday is the biggest expansion of
domestic surveillance since the Patriot Act. Senator
Wyden calls this power “terrifying,” and he’s
right," the thread begins.
I’ll explain how this new power works. Under current law, the government can compel “electronic communications service providers” that have direct access to communications to assist the NSA in conducting Section 702 surveillance. In practice, that means companies like Verizon and Google must turn over the communications of the targets of Section 702 surveillance. (The targets must be foreigners overseas, although the communications can—and do—include communications with Americans.) Through a seemingly innocuous change to the definition of “electronic communications surveillance provider,” an amendment offered by House intel committee (HPSCI) leaders and passed by the House vastly expands the universe of entities that can be compelled to assist the NSA. If the bill becomes law, any company or individual that provides ANY service whatsoever may be forced to assist in NSA surveillance, as long as they have access to equipment on which communications are transmitted or stored—such as routers, servers, cell towers, etc. That sweeps in an enormous range of U.S. businesses that provide wifi to their customers and therefore have access to equipment on which communications transit. Barber shops, laundromats, fitness centers, hardware stores, dentist’s offices… the list goes on and on. It also
includes commercial landlords that rent out the
office space where tens of millions of Americans go
to work every day—offices of journalists, lawyers,
nonprofits, financial advisors, health care
providers, and more.
None of these people or businesses would be allowed to tell anyone about the assistance they were compelled to provide. They would be under a gag order, and they would face heavy penalties if they failed to comply with it. That’s not even the worst part. Unlike Google and Verizon, most of these businesses and individuals lack the ability to isolate and turn over a target’s communications. So they would be required to give the NSA access to the equipment itself or to use techniques or devices (presumably provided by the NSA) to copy and turn over entire communications streams and/or repositories of stored communications, which would inevitably include vast quantities of wholly domestic communications. The NSA, having wholesale access to domestic communications on an unprecedented scale, would then be on the “honor system” to pull out and retain only the communications of approved foreign targets. (Let that sink in.) HPSCI leaders deny that the administration has any intent to use this provision so broadly. Supposedly, there is a single type of service provider that the government wants to rope in. But they didn’t want anyone to know what that service provider was so they hid the real goal by writing the amendment as broadly and vaguely as possible. But no worries, Americans! The administration isn’t actually going to USE all the power it just persuaded the House to give it. I cannot overstate how mindblowingly irresponsible that is. I don’t think *any* administration should be trusted with an Orwellian power like this one. But even if *this* administration doesn’t plan to make full use of it… (Go ahead and fill in the blank.) There are
certain powers a government should not have in a
democracy. The ability to force
ordinary businesses and individuals to serve as
surrogate spies is one of them. Even if the targets
are supposed to be foreigners, a power this sweeping
WILL be abused.
The White House
will tell senators they have no choice other than to
pass the House bill, because Section 702 expires on
April 19, and trying to fix the House bill—or pass
different legislation—would take too long. But the April 19
deadline exists only on paper.
(read more) ______________________ Permission is hereby granted to any and all to copy and paste any entry on this page and convey it electronically along with its URL, ______________________ |
...
News and facts for
those sick and tired of the National Propaganda Radio
version of reality.
|
|||||
|
| If
you let them redefine words, they will control
language. If you let them control language, they will control thoughts. If you let them control thoughts, they will control you. They will own you. |
| © 2020 - 2024 - thenotimes.com - All Rights Reserved |