Warrantless Surveillance

[DadSmith]

House Intel chairman to hold classified briefings for Republicans on FISA

Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, will be holding classified briefings for House Republicans on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act throughout the rest of July as members of both parties grow angry with the intelligence…

www.washingtonexaminer.com

US will become 'nation of chumps' if Congress allows FBI's warrantless surveillance of Americans, Turley warns

Congress must overhaul a federal law that has allowed the FBI to surveil American citizens without a warrant, according to experts who testified to lawmakers.

news.yahoo.com

FBI wrongly searched for US senator and state senator in Section 702 spy data, court says

U.S. officials say Section 702 enables their highest priority work on China, Russia and threats like terrorism and cybersecurity.

www.ksla.com

Internal Documents Show How Little the FBI Did to Correct Misuse of Section 702 Databases

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has released internal documents used to guide agency personnel on how to search the massive databases of information collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including communications collected without a warrant under Section 702. Despite...

www.eff.org

Lawmaker Says He Was Target of F.B.I. Surveillance Material Searches

The revelation by Representative Darin LaHood, Republican of Illinois, put a twist on a murky incident that has loomed over a debate on reauthorizing an expiring surveillance law.

www.nytimes.com

How do we Constitution loving Americans go about getting rid of this gross violation of the 4th Amendment?

 

[rosejm]

Maybe we can get some judges targeted too?
Honestly, that's the only way I see this being eliminated.

Legislators being angry and investigating is a start, but I'm not expecting any meaningful action and certainly none that would protect The People. Small chance there's some politician carve out.

 

[Shadow01]

Everyone loved the Patriot act until they didn’t

 

[KellyinAvon]

Everyone loved the Patriot act until they didn’t

The John Adams quote comes to mind here.

Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.

 

[jsx1043]

Everyone loved the Patriot act until they didn’t

This is one of the hardest pills to swallow. I think a significant majority, myself included, fell for it because we didn’t know any better. It wasn’t until the last few years that so many of us woke up. Once the curtain is pulled back, it’s amazing seeing all the ways in which we are subjectified.

 

[jwamplerusa]

Everyone loved the Patriot act until they didn’t

I didn't, but then I've read the Constitution and I understood the danger that an Orwellian surveillance State presents. (Grew up on SciFi, I always viewed the dystopian future novels as a warning)

At the time of passage I was disgusted, but felt somewhat assured by the inclusion of a sunset provision requiring reauthorization for at least some of the most egregious parts. I was certain that it would be quickly weakened at the first reauthorization once more sane minds came to bear on what had been done. Sadly that was not to be the case.

Once the Snowden Revelations were disclosed I was certain the political class would understand the danger they had put themselves into and would quickly drive a stake through the heart of the Patriot Act. Wow, was I wrong.

At this juncture nothing surprises me. We've allowed a secret Court to exist and be manipulated for two decades. We have shared critical intelligence data sets with four other nations for two decades. Data that by all accounts includes raw information that would almost certainly include politician information. I cannot imagine a scenario where those other nations did not use that data to benefit themselves.

What better way to make sure your country gets a little USA aid than to know which politicians make phone calls to people other than their wife or to lobbying organizations which are counter to your goals.

For me the continued existence of the Patriot Act is another data point that substantiates the death of the Constitution of the United States of America, and the utter subversion of our politicians by others than the citizens they ostensibly serve.

The Patriot Act is what you get when the fear index is high and even a majority of the politicians become just more sheeple. As with Executive Order 9066 human beings will do the most irrational and often evil things based upon fear.

 

[indyblue]

And I’ve been streaming “Person of Interest” lately, which hits at the heart of this very topic. The show interested me when it was originally aired because of my knowledge of IT.

Combine AI with the patriot act and we get this very thing that was considered fiction at the time, but could become very real soon.

 

[rosejm]

Combine AI with the patriot act and we get this very thing that was considered fiction at the time, but could become very real soon.

Don't be confused. This already exists. Likely some version at the time that show was filmed.
The stuff that Snowden leaked in 2013 was on-going 15 years beforehand, and possible before that. Been there, seen it then.

As we're aware that facial recognition software is sold on the commercial market, CCTV cameras are commonplace and AI is publicly available, .gov has been improving this type of project for many years. Heck, it been leaked that China is doing this to its citizens openly.

You might argue that Federal departments aren't using this on The People (yet), but you can be sure it's used on foreign nationals and overseas. Given .gov's recent side-stepping of the Constitution by "contracting" out illegal actions to private corporations, I'm sure a division of the multi-colored G or some other large-cap corp has suckled onto Uncle Sugar's teat to provide that kind of computationally intensive, high-priority, expensive, national security service.

If you accept that this article is reporting truth on warrantless surveillance of Americans, why would they not feed that data into an aggregation and analysis system backed by endless piles of taxpayer dollars? You can be sure it's leveraging the best technology a security clearance with money can buy.

 

[Jaybird1980]

Everyone loved the Patriot act until they didn’t

Not me.

I've bitched about it from the start and people said I'm a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

It always pisses me off when I hear people say the Bush's were good presidents.

 

[Twangbanger]

Our only possible hope at repeal/modification is if someone like Trump were to take the reins and use this to investigate LGBT university professors, or something similar.

Otherwise, omigosh, Netflix America just sees this as another tool to keep us safe.

 

[DadSmith]

Our only possible hope at repeal/modification is if someone like Trump were to take the reins and use this to investigate LGBT university professors, or something similar.

Otherwise, omigosh, Netflix America just sees this as another tool to keep us safe.

That would be hilarious to watch their reactions if it went against them for once.

 

[Wstar425]

Everyone loved the Patriot act until they didn’t

Wisconsin Democrat Senator Russ Feingold and I were the only two people that I ever heard that were against it, at the time. But for different reasons.

He didn’t think it went far enough…..

Republican Ron Johnson took his seat, who you’ve likely heard of.

 

[DadSmith]

Top FBI Official Urges Agents to Use Warrantless Wiretaps on US Soil

An internal email from FBI deputy director Paul Abbate, obtained by WIRED, tells employees to search for “US persons” in a controversial spy program's database that investigators have repeatedly misused.

www.wired.com