Tag Archives: FISA

NBC News reports: The House voted to renew a powerful surveillance program on Friday, two days after a band of 19 conservative privacy hawks revolted against Republican leadership and blocked the legislation on the floor when their demands were not met. Earlier Friday, the conservative rebels ended their blockade and allowed the bill to move forward after striking a deal …

The Hill reports: Senate Republicans vented their frustration after former President Trump helped derail a compromise House bill to extend Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) authority, sending lawmakers scrambling to find a Plan B to keep the nation’s intelligence agencies from losing their ability to spy on adversaries and terrorists. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) warned that …

Politico reports: House Republicans on Wednesday brought down their own speaker’s third attempt to reauthorize a controversial spy power — a fresh blow to the perpetually embattled Mike Johnson. Nineteen Republicans voted to block debate on legislation that would have made changes to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which governs communications from foreigners outside of the United …

Via Wired: NSA whistleblower Russell Tice was back on Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC program Thursday evening to expand on his Wednesday revelations that the National Security Agency spied on individual U.S. journalists, entire U.S. news agencies as well as “tens of thousands” of other Americans. Tice said on Wednesday that the NSA had vacuumed in all domestic communications of Americans, including, …

Yesterday Dubya signed away another piece of democracy when he gleefully scratched his name in blood onto the FISA bill. George W. Bush Thursday signed a law expanding legal authority for wiretaps by spy agencies which he hailed as vital for America’s security, after a fierce Congress battle. “This law will play a critical role in helping to prevent another …

Thanks to today’s Senate vote to approve the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, warrantless wiretapping, arguably the most intrusive violation of Americans’ right to privacy, will become legal. Oh, and everybody who’s already done it is now immunized against lawsuits. A list of how each Senator voted is here. The Democratic-led Congress this afternoon voted to put an end to the …

Barack Obama has had his right-turn blinker on for several days. More backlash: Senator Barack Obama’s decision to support legislation granting legal immunity to telecommunications companies that cooperated with the Bush administration’s program of wiretapping without warrants has led to an intense backlash among some of his most ardent supporters. Thousands of them are now using the same grass-roots organizing …