NSA defenders think they can make surveillance reform vanish. This is how wrong they are

[unhappycamper]

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/04/nsa-surveillance-reform-politicians-2015

A dirty trick by politicians will come back to haunt them if a looming fight exposes the motherlode of spying power – and shuts off the data vacuum

NSA defenders think they can make surveillance reform vanish. This is how wrong they are
Trevor Timm
Saturday 4 October 2014 08.00 EDT

NSA reform is not going away, even if officials in Congress and the White House are praying it does. The NSA’s staunchest defenders are currently making one last attempt to kill any meaningful restrictions on surveillance, but in the process, they’re are on the verge of painting themselves into a corner they can’t get out of – just as even more secret spying on Americans comes to light.

As members of Congress fled from DC a week early last month to avoid voting on war with Isis before the midterms, they also abandoned all but the faintest hope of passing the USA Freedom Act – the watered-down reform bill that has been the focus of so much debate about what to actually do about the NSA – before the end of 2014.

NSA defenders may think they’re successfully running out the clock on reform efforts, but it’s about to come back to haunt them. As the Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman explained on Friday, if Congress refuses to vote on the USA Freedom Act when they come back for their lame duck session after Election Day, their strategic cowardice will set up a showdown come June, when Congress must re-authorize Section 215 of the Patriot Act – the law allowing the NSA to vacuum up every American’s phone records.

The law will expire altogether if Congress doesn’t affirmatively vote “yes” on it, which should effectively shut down the NSA’s domestic metadata spying program. And it’s pretty clear the House doesn’t have enough votes to pass any re-authorization.

[daleanime]

1. K&R....

and hope.