Protect our privacy and please veto HR 4681, aka The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015.
Congress has quietly passed an Intelligence Authorization Bill that grants the executive branch unlimited warrentless access to the communications of every single American and gives this information to not just federal agencies but to local law enforcement as well. Similar powers have been asserted by executive order before nothing on this level has ever been passed by Congress and for it to pass without so much as a debate is completely unjustifiable.
At the last moment representative Justin Amash found the true intent of the bill and was able to make a motion to reconsider. The bill has passed but has not yet been sent to the president to sign, we still barely have the ability to change the original vote but you need to contact your representative immediately and let them know that the bill in it’s current form is completely unacceptable. Failure to act now will lead to the bill being sent to the president.
Contact your Congressman! The vote to reconsider can still block this.
"SEC. 309. PROCEDURES FOR THE RETENTION OF INCIDENTALLY ACQUIRED
COMMUNICATIONS.
(a) Definitions.–In this section:
(1) Covered communication.–The term covered communication'' means any nonpublic telephone or electronic communication acquired without the consent of a person who is a party to the communication, including communications in electronic storage. (2) Head of an element of the intelligence community.--The term head of an element of the intelligence community’’ means, as
appropriate–
(A) the head of an element of the intelligence community;
or
(B) the head of the department or agency containing such
element.
(3) United states person.–The term ``United States person’’
has the meaning given that term in section 101 of the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1801).
(b) Procedures for Covered Communications.–
(1) Requirement to adopt.–Not later than 2 years after the
date of the enactment of this Act each head of an element of the
intelligence community shall adopt procedures approved by the
Attorney General for such element that ensure compliance with the
requirements of paragraph (3).
(2) Coordination and approval.–The procedures required by
paragraph (1) shall be–
(A) prepared in coordination with the Director of National
Intelligence; and
(B) approved by the Attorney General prior to issuance.
(3) Procedures.–
(A) Application.–The procedures required by paragraph (1)
shall apply to any intelligence collection activity not
otherwise authorized by court order (including an order or
certification issued by a court established under subsection
(a) or (b) of section 103 of the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1803)), subpoena, or
similar legal process that is reasonably anticipated to result
in the acquisition of a covered communication to or from a
United States person and shall permit the acquisition,
retention, and dissemination of covered communications subject
to the limitation in subparagraph (B).
(B) Limitation on retention.–A covered communication shall
not be retained in excess of 5 years, unless–
(i) the communication has been affirmatively
determined, in whole or in part, to constitute foreign
intelligence or counterintelligence or is necessary to
understand or assess foreign intelligence or
counterintelligence;
(ii) the communication is reasonably believed to
constitute evidence of a crime and is retained by a law
enforcement agency;
(iii) the communication is enciphered or reasonably
believed to have a secret meaning;
(iv) all parties to the communication are reasonably
believed to be non-United States persons;
(v) retention is necessary to protect against an
imminent threat to human life, in which case both the
nature of the threat and the information to be retained
shall be reported to the congressional intelligence
committees not later than 30 days after the date such
retention is extended under this clause;
(vi) retention is necessary for technical assurance or
compliance purposes, including a court order or discovery
obligation, in which case access to information retained
for technical assurance or compliance purposes shall be
reported to the congressional intelligence committees on an
annual basis; or
(vii) retention for a period in excess of 5 years is
approved by the head of the element of the intelligence
community responsible for such retention, based on a
determination that retention is necessary to protect the
national security of the United States, in which case the
head of such element shall provide to the congressional
intelligence committees a written certification
describing–
(I) the reasons extended retention is necessary to
protect the national security of the United States;
(II) the duration for which the head of the element
is authorizing retention;
(III) the particular information to be retained;
and
(IV) the measures the element of the intelligence
community is taking to protect the privacy interests of
United States persons or persons located inside the
United States."
My understanding of what this particular bit of legislation allows is if during the course of foreign surveillance an intelligence agency stumbles upon something of interest to domestic law enforcement, they can retain it for up to five years. If the domestic law enforcement agency actually wants to use it, they still have to get a warrant and plus they have to discover it somehow existed in the first place.
I agree there’s several ways this could be abused, and the whole idea of warrantless foreign wiretaps in general is of course problematic, but the claim that this amounts to “unlimited warrantless access to the communications of all Americans” is absurd.
Sure, but where in the language does it say that the NSA can collect anything it wants? I don’t see it.
Also, the bill passed the Senate unanimously. Why do you suppose Senator Wyden, an NSA critic and member of the committee that wrote the bill, hasn’t said anything about this?