Freedom Act - Freedom Lost

by

       M. Richard Maxson

      This story is extremely important, and serves as a great example of how difficult it can be to know what’s actually going on. I spend nearly 100% of my time trying to stay informed about the world around me, yet I’m constantly surprised by how little I know. For people who don’t have the time or energy to try to stay informed, forget about it. The media is generally worthless, and will more often than not mislead you. Let me just state that the Patriot Act is one of the most egregious pieces of legislation passed in U.S. history. The use of the word "patriot" is an insult to all constitutionalists. Enter the USA Freedom Act. Named once again to deflect scrutiny, after all, who doesn't like freedom? (The elected officials who have voted for this scam.) This legislation is a more fuzzy version of the unconstitutional Patriot Act. It is touted as a "fix" for all those who have had endure the criticism of the electorate. The truth is...........nothing much has changed.

       A look at the USA FREEDOM Act's details, as opposed to the press releases of its supporters, shows that the act leaves the government's mass surveillance powers virtually untouched.

The USA Freedom Act would: 

• Resume the NSA data collection program, but only for a transition period of six months. After that, the legislation would no longer allow the NSA to sweep up Americans' records in bulk. Instead, it would leave the records with phone companies and give the government the ability to seek access with a warrant.
  (They would STILL be spying on Americans)
• Continue other post-9/11 surveillance provisions that also lapsed Sunday night. These include the FBI's authority to gather business records in terrorism and espionage investigations and to more easily eavesdrop on suspects who are discarding cellphones to avoid surveillance. 
• Create a panel to provide the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court with guidance on privacy and civil liberties matters. 
• Increase transparency for the surveillance court's decisions.
   (The secret FISA court)
  

                                           

      The bill would not abridge NSA collection of Americans’ international communications, nor prevent the NSA or the FBI from warrantlessly

searching through its troves of them for Americans’ identifying information, a constitutional violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees the right to privacy in our “persons, houses, papers and effects.” That includes everything held by the custodians of our records.. The recently disclosed bulk domestic phone records collection dragnet by the Drug Enforcement Agency would also be untouched. 
     
    In a little-noted speech at Washington and Lee Law School, Gen. Michael Hayden, the former director of both the CIA and the NSA, in a remarkable public confession, he revealed that somehow he received from some source he did not name the authority to reinterpret the Fourth Amendment’s protection of privacy so as to obliterate it. He argued that the line between privacy and unbridled government surveillance is a flexible and movable one, and that he -- as the head of the NSA -- could move it.

      This is not only chilling to all true Americans but given the fact that the FBI has stated that they can’t point to any major terrorism cases they’ve cracked thanks to the key snooping powers in the Patriot Act then  there is definitely more to this legislation than meets the eye. Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz said that between 2004 and 2009, the FBI tripled its use of bulk collection under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows government agents to compel businesses to turn over records and documents, and increasingly scooped up records of Americans who had no ties to official terrorism investigations.

      The USA Freedom Act has about as much to do with freedom as the

Patriot Act had to do with patriotism. If Congress truly wanted to protect our liberties it would pass the Surveillance State Repeal Act, which repeals the PATRIOT Act. Fourteen years after the PATRIOT Act was rushed into law, it is clear that sacrificing liberty does little or nothing to preserve security. Instead of trying to fool the American people with phony reforms, Congress should repeal all laws that violate the Fourth Amendment, starting with the PATRIOT Act.