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9/11 Gave Us a Police State With the ‘un-Patriot’ Act, After Vegas Get Ready for ‘USA Liberty’ Act
After
9/11, the United States government preyed on the fear felt by many Americans to
justify the passage of the USA Patriot Act—a law that was supposed to prevent
future terrorist attacks. Now, after the Las Vegas shooting, the government has
another proposed law ready to go, and just as with the Patriot Act, it also
infringes on Americans’ liberties, and does very little for their security.
The USA
Liberty Act is the latest trendy name for a law that would
reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA),
which is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2017. According to the House Judiciary
Committee, the act would preserve “the core
purpose of Section 702: the collection of electronic communications by non-U.S.
persons for use in our nation’s defense.”
Here’s the Spin from the Horse’s Mouth…
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.),
joined by Ranking Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Crime, Terrorism,
Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner
(R-Wis.), Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations Subcommittee
Ranking Member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), and Courts, Intellectual Property
and the Internet Subcommittee Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.),
introduced the USA Liberty Act (H.R.
3989). This bipartisan bill reforms and reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
(FISA), which is set to expire at the end of this year, to protect both
national security and Americans’ civil liberties.
“The USA Liberty Act protects Americans’ lives and their civil liberties.
This bipartisan bill reauthorizes a critical national security tool that keeps
Americans safe but also reforms it to protect Americans’ constitutional rights.
It contains more accountability, transparency, and oversight so that the
American people have confidence that our cherished liberties continue to be
protected as the intelligence community keeps us safe from foreign enemies
wishing to harm our nation and citizens. The bill also contains a number of
measures to further enhance national security so that our country remains free
and safe. I thank the many members who have worked on this bill for months and
look forward to bringing it up in the House Judiciary Committee soon.”
As is the
usual case with government speak, it is crock of crap…the citizen will lose
more of their liberties just as they did with the so-called, mis-named Patriot
Act whereby citizens were FORCED to give up 100% of their privacy among other
aspects of their rights under our Bill of Rights [EX: Only Arabs were involved with the terrorist
plot of 911, yet now every citizen must now obtain an expensive passport to visit
Canada despite more than 250 years of visitations without problem-why should
the entire nation suffer because of a few outsiders? The reason is simple: The government used this as an excuse to
MONITOR and CONTROL the rest of its citizens…it has nothing to do with our
safety.
Remember the words of our founding father Ben
Franklin...
However, it
should be noted that while the purpose of FISA was reportedly only to allow
surveillance on the communications of foreign targets who were suspected
terrorists, it has been used to spy on the communications of innocent
Americans—despite the practice being ruled illegal—and any reauthorization of the law
will only allow the practice to continue under the guise of “preventing terrorism.”
The USA
Liberty Act claims that it will “better
protect Americans’ privacy” by requiring the government to have “a legitimate national security purpose”
before searching an individual’s database. Then when they do have that purpose
established, they will be required to “obtain a
court order based on probable cause to look at the content of communications,
except when lives or safety are threatened, or a previous probable cause-based
court order or warrant has been granted.”
But what the
USA Liberty Act does not advertise is the fact that it does not actually
address the legitimate problems that exist with Section 702. The FBI’s “legitimate national security purpose”
could be justified by just about any reason the agency chooses to give, and
agents will only need supervisory authority in order to search Americans’
metadata.
One of the
most important things to remember about Section 702 is that, as the
Constitution Project noted, it gives domestic law enforcement agencies
access to the data seized by the NSA, while allowing the NSA to “retain and disseminate Americans’
communications that may contain any evidence of any crime.”
In a press release on the new act, the House
Judiciary Committee bragged about the “bipartisan
success” of the USA Freedom Act in June 2015, claiming that
it “ended the bulk collection of
data, protected civil liberties and national security, and provided robust
oversight and transparency of our vital national security tools.”
Ironically,
Obama ran on a platform of a more open government and did just the opposite and
he actually helped strengthen and the Patriot Act [which has virtually
eliminated ALL privacy for Americans] AND he repeatedly ignored court warnings about
spying on Americans - all the while telling the American public he was
safeguarding their privacy!
Of course, the lame stream media never
reported that their “Saint Obama” was breaking the law and was engaging in the
non-stop screwing of citizens and other law breaking ventures [such as using $350,000
of taxpayer funds to secretly attempting to sabotage the election in Israel
three years ago…and that is just one example].
What’s On Your Mind? Please
share & give us your feedback!
Yours for better living,
Bruce ‘the Poor Man’
Additional Resources
The Poor Man’s
Essential Survival Package
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