Timothy B. Lee:
In recent months, Barack Obama has forcefully defended the use of the Patriot Act to gather the phone records of every American. But before he was elected president, he had a very different perspective on the issue.
In December 2005, Congress was debating the first re-authorization of the Patriot Act, a controversial 2001 law that gave the federal government expanded power to spy on Americans. And Barack Obama was one of nine senators who signed a letter criticizing the then-current version of the legislation for providing insufficient protections for civil liberties.
The senators focused on Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the government to obtain “business records” that are “relevant” to a terrorism investigation. Sen. Obama and eight of his colleagues worried that the provision would “allow government fishing expeditions targeting innocent Americans. We believe the government should be required to convince a judge that the records they are seeking have some connection to a suspected terrorist or spy.”
Congress eventually re-authorized the Patriot Act, including Section 215. A few years later, Obama was elected president of the United States. And under President Obama’s watch, the NSA engaged in surveillance suspiciously similar to the broad “fishing expeditions” Sen. Obama warned about.
The government has argued that records of every phone call made in the United States are “relevant” to counter-terrorism investigations generally, allowing them to obtain information about the private phone calls of millions of Americans — exactly the kind of argument Sen. Obama warned the government would make if the language of Section 215 wasn’t tightened.
Sen. Obama and his colleagues also objected to the lack of transparency and due process in Section 215. “The target of a Section 215 order never receives notice that the government has obtained his sensitive personal information and never has an opportunity to challenge the use of this information in a trial or other proceeding,” they wrote.
Just as Bill Clinton signed many last moment presidential orders once he knew a REPUBLICAN was coming into his office, so, too, I expect, Obama will do the same IF a Republican gets elected after his terms.
All he used and abused in the way of over-reach he will suddenly ”get religion” about and move to prevent the next leader from even having a chance to show what he’s made of.
Agree, but one had to look closely at Sections 215, 203 part A and B, 206, 218, and 213, 865 and 6001. The Congress deciding instead moved ahead with a straightforward reauthorization rather than a legislative/judiciary review which currently has incurred great consequences. America has no idea of how close they are to a totalitarianism state.
There is a very good book by Hanna Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, need to read it soon.
MOS 8541
I don’t know much but this sound to me highly important,
and dangerous for AMERICA AS SHE HAS BEEN FROM CENTURY,
bye
I always thought him to be two-faced. This obvious proves it
Nan G
that’s why the next leader should not be a person who followed his rules like a blind bat,
this AMERICA IS BETTER THAN THAT, AND NEED THE NEW YOUNGER ASSERTIVES LEADER TO BE,
WHO CAN FACE THE DEVIL IN THE FACE AND NOT HIDE BEHIND HIS PARTY,
LIKE THE DEMOCRATS ARE DOING,
THIS NEXT LEADER MUST BE A CONSERVATIVE TO BE ABLE TO PERCEIVE THE NEXT MOVE
OF THE COUNTRY SO TO TAKE ACTION ON NEUTRALIZING THE FORCES OF DESTRUCTION ALREADY IN THIS GOVERNMENT AND OTHER POWER HOUSE CONNECTED,
THAT NEW COMER WILL NEED TO HAVE THE GUTS TO MAKE CHANGE BACK TO AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL,
AN AMERICA AT WORK FOR ALL, AND HAPPY ABOUT IT.
FLASHBACK 1975: Senator Warns Gov’t Surveillance Will Be Turned On Americans