Lest we think that from the actions of dissidents nothing changes, check out the front-page New York Times piece, "Momentum Builds Against N.S.A. surveillance" -- and yes, thank you Edward Snowden, denounced in Congress as a "traitor" and "defector," who has nonetheless managed to rally what may become majorities in that body to restrict what the NSA can do. Of course, when it comes to Congress, caution should prevail. Still, talk about a sea change! Tom "The rapidly shifting politics were reflected clearly in the House on Wednesday, when a plan to defund the National Security Agency’s telephone data collection program fell just seven votes short of passage. Now, after initially signaling that they were comfortable with the scope of the N.S.A.’s collection of Americans’ phone and Internet activities, but not their content, revealed last month by Edward J. Snowden, lawmakers are showing an increasing willingness to use legislation to curb those actions. "Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin, and Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, have begun work on legislation in the House Judiciary Committee to significantly rein in N.S.A. telephone surveillance. Mr. Sensenbrenner said on Friday that he would have a bill ready when Congress returned from its August recess that would restrict phone surveillance to only those named as targets of a federal terrorism investigation, make significant changes to the secret court that oversees such programs and give businesses like Microsoft and Google permission to reveal their dealings before that court." nytimes/2013/07/29/us/politics/momentum-builds-against-nsa-surveillance.html
Posted on: Mon, 29 Jul 2013 15:06:11 +0000
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