US House Passes Amendment Ordering Actual Restraints on NSA Searches

[Chef Ramsay]

Special Thanks to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), buddies w/ you know who...

Tonight the House voted to approve an amendment to a defense appropriation bill shutting down the part of National Security Agency (NSA) "backdoor searches" that collects metadata on Americans without a warrant. The bill was sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). The Electronic Frontier Foundation explains:

Today, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill designed to cut funding for NSA backdoors. The amendment passed overwhelmingly with strong bipartisan support: 293 ayes, 123 nays, and 1 present.

Currently, the NSA collects emails, browsing and chat history under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, and searches this information without a warrant for the communications of Americans—a practice known as "backdoor searches." The amendment would block the NSA from using any of its funding from this Defense Appropriations Bill to conduct such warrantless searches. In addition, the amendment would prohibit the NSA from using its budget to mandate or request that private companies and organizations add backdoors to the encryption standards that are meant to keep you safe on the web.

more...http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/20/house-passes-amendment-ordering-actual-r
Remember the last time they voted on something like this the good guys came up ~8 votes short. Now, it's bulls on parade and on to the Senate where plenty of key individuals are up for reelection..  Perfect timing but keep on the lookout for a stripped down version coming from the Senate. But, this will allow Rand Paul to gain even more prominence FTW.

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[RodeoX]

I want the list of those who voted nay.  

Spoiler alert: I ain't F'ing Santa Clause.

Thanks for the link below Chef!

[Chef Ramsay]

Roll call: http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2014/roll327.xml half way down

[Spendulus]

Special Thanks to Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), buddies w/ you know who...

Tonight the House voted to approve an amendment to a defense appropriation bill shutting down the part of National Security Agency (NSA) "backdoor searches" that collects metadata on Americans without a warrant. The bill was sponsored by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). The Electronic Frontier Foundation explains:

Today, the US House of Representatives passed an amendment to the Defense Appropriations bill designed to cut funding for NSA backdoors. The amendment passed overwhelmingly with strong bipartisan support: 293 ayes, 123 nays, and 1 present.

Currently, the NSA collects emails, browsing and chat history under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act, and searches this information without a warrant for the communications of Americans—a practice known as "backdoor searches." The amendment would block the NSA from using any of its funding from this Defense Appropriations Bill to conduct such warrantless searches. In addition, the amendment would prohibit the NSA from using its budget to mandate or request that private companies and organizations add backdoors to the encryption standards that are meant to keep you safe on the web.

more...http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/20/house-passes-amendment-ordering-actual-r
Remember the last time they voted on something like this the good guys came up ~8 votes short. Now, it's bulls on parade and on to the Senate where plenty of key individuals are up for reelection..  Perfect timing but keep on the lookout for a stripped down version coming from the Senate. But, this will allow Rand Paul to gain even more prominence FTW.

This is not enough.  I want added to the bill public disclosure of the chat, email and browser history of all NSA employees, and of all those who voted against the bill.  And the employees of companies who were given money to do these jobs by the NSA.

Payback.

PS.  Maybe I'm just feeling mean.
Anyway, it would certainly be nice if the Repubs could emerge as the protectors of individual liberties, and the Democrats the suppressors of them.  I do not believe that is the case now, but this development does lean in that direction.

Of course Rand Paul either as Potus or Senate Majority Leader would do it.

[InwardContour]

The problem with the NSA searches is the lack of transparency of the programs. Even companies that disclose how many NSA/national security requests they receive and fulfill do not really provide any useful information. For one they provide a very broad range of number of requests and even this does not really provide a good picture of how many users information were disclosed. Another issue with transparency is that neither the subject of the search (the user) nor the public ever got to see the evidence used in support of these "warrants" therefore no one really knows what/if standard of proof is being used to approve these "warrants" or if they are simply being rubber stamped by the "judges" appointed to the court.

A second, similar issue is that the subject of the search (the user) is never presented with the search warrant, therefore depriving them with the ability to challenge the search as unconstitutional. It would appear that information found as a result of this program has never been used in court, (this is not as clear) nor has it been disclosed to the defense of anyone charged with a crime related to the search. If it was brought up in open court then it would have almost certainly been picked up by the media (mass media not just local news) and would likely be brought up in court and/or disclosed to the media if this information was provided to the defense in a criminal case. This presents not only the transparency issue (above), the disability to challenge this kind of search warrant but also the issue that the accused is likely not receiving all of the relevant information regarding his case when being charged with a crime. During the pretrial phase of a criminal case the defendant (and his attorney) are to be provided with all of the evidence the prosecution has against him as well as evidence that may work in his favor (evidence that may should he is not guilty).

Another issue, which IMO is the biggest issue is the way the law was written and interpreted. The public's understanding of the law and how the law was implemented and interpreted are vastly different. This prevented the public from having a debate as to if the law should be passed or not. This is the cornerstone to democracy, if the public cannot discuss the merits of a particular law then there is little point in voting as the public's opinion on issues will not matter. 

[hologram]

That's cool but if NSA would stop to give information to their friend government in Europe it would be better  My government is too stupid to spy  people so stop help him please...

[Spendulus]

The problem with the NSA searches is....

....that they lied to us, they said explicitly they would not search US citizens except in specific cases and then with a warrant. 

No more needs be said, except that they are doubling down and intending to continue doing what they've been doing.

[tvbcof]

The problem with the NSA searches is....

....that they lied to us, they said explicitly they would not search US citizens except in specific cases and then with a warrant. 

No more needs be said, except that they are doubling down and intending to continue doing what they've been doing.

Exactly right!  Some of us remember back to the 'smackdown' of the 'total information awareness' programs of Admiral Poindexter.  It should be abundantly clear that whatever laws are passed and the posturing which is done by our politicians mean very little.  Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice...

If an individual wants privacy, they have to TAKE it and not wait for our corp/gov systems to grant it to us.  It's very unlikely to happen.  The good news is that it is fairly possible to take what privacy one really needs.  Only a small minority of people will have the tools and disposition to take what they deserve in this respect, but the number is subject to grow rather than to shrink as awareness of what's going on leaks out.  And especially as incentives and the necessity of doing so grows.

The real challenge when it comes to influencing politics and policy is to simply keep the avenues open for innovations.  Fortunately the U.S. Constitution remains a usable tool for this since it is so extraordinarily plain about what fundamental rights are in regards to most of these principles and it remains a fairly powerful document in the construction of operating procedures (much to the chagrin of our various leaderships I'm sure.)

[InwardContour]

The problem with the NSA searches is....

....that they lied to us, they said explicitly they would not search US citizens except in specific cases and then with a warrant. 

No more needs be said, except that they are doubling down and intending to continue doing what they've been doing.

Hopefully this will be put to a stop the next time the patroit act is to be renewed if it is not put to a stop sooner