The Protect America Act of 2007.. It explains much of what is going on now

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"The Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA), (Pub.L. 110–55, 121 Stat. 552, enacted by S. 1927), is a controversial amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on August 5, 2007. It removed the warrant requirement for government surveillance of foreign intelligence targets "reasonably believed" to be outside of the United States.[1] The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 reauthorized many provisions of the Protect America Act in Title VII of FISA.[2]"

This is my second and hopefully last op on this.. It is something that I came across, had overlooked, and explains how we got in this mess in the first place with the FISA courts

The Bush Administration pushed this through a year before they were out of office. They had been under incredible fire for not going to FISA courts for warrants. Basically they passed a law saying they did not need warrants. And in doing that, covered their own backsides.

The whole "reasonably believed" add on, covers everything. Including in the United States. And they do not have to produce a warrant to make a case.

Lots of us have been howling at the wrong old moon if you get my drift. We could overturn the Patriot Act tomorrow and this would still be standing. This is where PRISM came from.

EDIT TO ADD: Who voted for Protect America Act

Senate

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=1&vote=00309

House

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll836.xml

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1. This is why some of us keep saying that a great portion of this 'scandal' is old news

to anyone paying attention.

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2. I will be honest with you.. I did not get the gist of the PAA

I was trying to search out exactly what PRISM was and meant.. and this is where it is sourced out of .. It came under this act.

Edit to add.. I had never heard of it before myself. Or if I did, I had forgotten.

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3. Remember TIA? That is what tipped us off back then.

No one with a grasp of BushInc believed that TIA was ended. They just found a way of institutionalizing it to cover their asses. What's always bothered me about this current Snowden affair is that he is targeting all blame so personally towards Obama, which makes me see this as a Bush operation to level the playing field for their legacy and for their future: Jeb2016.

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4. Terrorism Information Act?

Like I said this is my second op on this.. Originally I had put one up about Prism, Snowden, NSA.. just trying to sort it out..

Here is the interesting thing.. Snowden initially had complained that all the data in the world basically goes through the United States networks, because of lower costs. (I do not understand all of that, so I will take his word for it).. and maybe it was the ability to use the PAA and not get warrants, that he was worried about. And it would be under the PAA. This was all new information or a new understanding for me. I was so focused on the Patriot Act that I did not even know or understand how this worked. And my guess, is most people do not.

Greenwald should have steered him (Snowden) to Wyden or someone like that and they could have done a Pentagon Papers kind of thing.. He is now being embraced by Putin in a country that is one step short of doing a Kristallnacht for the gay community. But I think he had his own agenda. And for some, there is nothing better than throwing eggs at Obama. When he did not turn out to be Jesus.. well you get the rest of that story.

There are no heroes in that mess. But there is something to be learned. I am getting a better understanding and handle on it. But it takes work.. and our congress people are not willing to work.

So I guess we will have to do it for them and present it to them.Like I told someone else..how can some little old retired lady in Iowa do 10 minutes of reading on this and they can't get together with staffs etc.

Its a mystery

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6. Bushies changed it to Terrorism Info Act. TIA began as Total Information Awareness.

They wanted to control the google search on TIA.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/magazine/15TOTA.html

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9. Oh MY GOD

I think it is okay to pull a couple of paragraphs out of an article: This is 2002

According to its Web site, which features a Latin slogan that means ''knowledge is power,'' ''Total Information Awareness of transnational threats requires keeping track of individuals and understanding how they fit into models.'' To this end, T.I.A. seeks to develop architectures for integrating existing databases into a ''virtual, centralized, grand database.'' In addition to analyzing financial, educational, travel and medical records, as well as criminal and other governmental records, the T.I.A. program could include the development of technologies to create risk profiles for millions of visitors and American citizens in its quest for suspicious patterns of behavior.

Civil libertarians greeted T.I.A. with alarm and called it a harbinger of even more Orwellian technologies to come. ''I fully believe that data-mining in the next five years will be used to determine whether you or I get access to a federal office building,'' said Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The Bush administration stands behind T.I.A., but privacy advocates hope to persuade Congress to pull the plug. When the government proposed creating a National Data Center in 1965, public outcry led to the passage of the Privacy Act of 1974, which prohibits federal agencies from routinely sharing personal information. Whether Americans still support that principle after 9/11 remains to be seen.

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10. Now THIS is why some are surprised at that intensity in Snowden and Greenwald's focus

on Obama, so personally, over widespread surveillance that had been institutionalized by Congress in 2006 and 2007. You cannot HAVE a discussion about this while ignoring everything that led up to today.

[Peacetrain]

5. Before I forget..

look at who voted for the PAA Act and who did not..

President Obama voted against it!

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7. When I first read about The PAA I smugly thought:

"Ha ha ha, some one just found out about the Patriot Act..."

And then I clicked the link and found out I was not as informed as I thought I was.

In my defense, I was working a full time job and two part time jobs the year this was passed...

But still, I did not know. And I imagine there are many others who just don't know. It is hard to stay informed when you work a scheduled 48 hours every week and then throw in an extra 8-24 hours on top of that scheduled work. There are many people out there working many hours just to keep apace of their regular bills.

I don't have to work two jobs to survive right now.

And I am thankful when people remind me of what I may have missed. Thanks for keeping the information flowing.

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8. There is just too much being thrown at the wall

at any given time for any human being to keep up with it all and where things are.. In another thread I was discussing this and another poster told me that it expired in 2008. That is good.. I was really appreciative of the fact.. I went back and reread the Wikipedia entry, and as I replied back to that poster... I know Wikipedia can be manipulated.. I understand that.. but this is still a concern to me because of this "continuance directive", I wish I had a better understanding of how things are put in legal language.. If they get back to me, and maybe they can explain it better I will most assuredly put it in here. I sometimes think we are all running around with a half filled glass of information.. Its hard to make a decent decision ..but you do the best you can with what you have

EDIT TO ADD: from Wikipedia Article on PAA


FISA Amendments of 2008: Continuance of Protect America Act authorizations and directives under

Whereas it is generally understood that the FISA Amendments of 2008 repealed the Protect America Act, this is not the case for existing directives and authorizations

(1) IN GENERAL- Except as provided in section 404, effective December 31, 2012, title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as amended by section 101(a), is repealed.
Continuance of Protect America Act 2007 Rules for Existing Orders

Section 404 (Transition Procedures) allows for continuance of Protect America Act Sections 105A, 105B and 105C for all existing orders. So for authorizations for intelligence information and directives issued under such authorizations, Protect America Act application continues to apply.

Section 404(a)2(A)subject to paragraph (3), section 105A of such Act, as added by section 2 of the Protect America Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-55; 121 Stat. 552), shall continue to apply to any acquisition conducted pursuant to an order, authorization, or directive referred to in paragraph (1); and
Section 404(a)2(B)sections 105B and 105C of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as added by sections 2 and 3, respectively, of the Protect America Act of 2007, shall continue to apply with respect to an order, authorization, or directive referred to in paragraph (1) until the later of--

(i) the expiration of such order, authorization, or directive; or
(ii) the date on which final judgment is entered for any petition or other litigation relating to such order, authorization, or directive.

Section 404 (Continuance Procedures) allows for continued authorizations and directives to be renewed under same circumstances indefinitely; It also allowed for continuance of Immunities for persons and corporations (including but not limited to telecoms) under FISA 2008 Amendments.

Section 404(a)7(B) CONTINUATION OF EXISTING ORDERS- If the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence seek to replace an authorization made pursuant to section 105B of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, as added by section 2 of the Protect America Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-55; 121 Stat. 522), by filing a certification in accordance with subparagraph (A), that authorization, and any directives issued thereunder and any order related thereto, shall remain in effect, notwithstanding the expiration provided for in subsection (a) of such section 105B, until the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (as such term is defined in section 701(b)(2) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (as so added)) issues an order with respect to that certification under section 702(i)(3) of such Act (as so added) at which time the provisions of that section and of section 702(i)(4) of such Act (as so added) shall apply.