While John Boehner’s budget disaster made all of the headlines last week, he and his Washington-insider buddies were busy dismantling the Constitution–specifically that pesky part that deals with the right of Americans to be free from unreasonable search and seizure (the Fourth Amendment)–granting the National Security Agency broad new powers to collect phone and email communications from anyone they feel like without a warrant. They can share the data with the FBI and foreign governments. They can also keep these records indefinitely.
According to Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), the bill “grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American.” Let’s see… the man who has already used the IRS and the Justice Department to take out his political enemies has been given even more power to abuse.
Gee! What could possibly go wrong with that one?
The bill, which passed 325-100 and is headed to the White House for Obama to sign, contains a provision that appears to expand warrant-less data collection using a Reagan-era directive — despite the fact that electronic communications of the type the NSA targets today didn’t exist in 1981.
Under the legislation, any “non-public telephone or electronic communication” that intelligence agencies happen to collect from Americans without a warrant can be held for five years, longer under certain circumstances, and shared with the FBI and foreign governments, according to John Napier Tye, a former State Department Internet policy official turned whistleblower.
A few days ago, I wrote about Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, who expressed no problem with this type of NSA activity, calling the right to privacy “overvalued.” Apparently, the Republican majority in Congress agrees with him.
Wake up, Patriots! We need to take this threat to our God-given rights seriously. It’s time to fight and defend them, before it’s too late!
What others had to say:
- Rep. Justin Amash rips expanded NSA spying OK’d by Congress – Newsmax.com
- Congress Quietly Bolsters NSA Spying in Intelligence Bill – National Journal
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