An attempt to reauthorize Section 702, the so-called crown jewel of US spy powers, failed for a third time in the House of Representatives after former president Donald Trump criticized the law.
Well it wasn't just Trump loyalists; it was 19 Republicans in the Freedom Caucus (who are indeed Trump loyalists) and almost all the Democrats voting agains bringing the current bill to the floor. Now what?
"Congressional sources tell WIRED they have no idea what the next steps will be."
I don't care how much dirt FISA could enable us to dig up on Trump, the trade isn't worth it. It'd be the epitome of biting off your nose to spite your face
I don't think anyone needs more evidence that Trump is a crook; I think the concern is that Trump is enough in cahoots with for-real foreign adversaries who are at odds with FISA-authorized surveillance (as it makes real operational problems for them), and they might be telling him how badly he needs to kill this to weaken it. He usually doesn't get anywhere deep into policy on this kind of stuff. Unless someone smarter than him is telling him what's important, he just talks about windmills and toilets and Crooked Hillary and how the election was stolen.
I honestly don't know whether it's that, or whether he's having an unexpected interest in policy details just because it came to his attention somehow and he knows the US national security apparatus is bad because it was mean to him. It could be either one.
I didn't like the patriot act and this seems like a loophole to doing patriot act things. It needs to apply to foreign protections and not citizens. Never thought id say it, but I have to agree with magas On this one. Most likely the magas don't appreciate the law spying on them and don't. care about the citizens.
The framing of it is odd when it was just 19 Republicans making up the 228 no votes largely by Democrats. I get that they were probably just motivated by Trump’s social media ramblings but it seems like this was a Democrat win for privacy rights.
The democrats oppose this spy tool because it is badly regulated and prone to abuse.
The Trump loyalists oppose this spy tool because it may expose some of Trumps crimes and treason.
They did -- FISA shouldn't be extended without reforms. All the scare tactics about how "oh noes national security is at risk if FISA isn't extended!!!!" are garbage; if Section 702 lapses, existing certifications are already approved for the next year, and the government has other authorities it can do the same kind of surveillance with.
I guess I don't understand the vitriol here. This is spying on foreign nationals who have dealings with citizens. Are we under the impression that Trump is the only traitor? Because it looks to me like even with FISA we have a fuck load of foreign agents in our country including politicians, military folks like General Flynn, Giuliani, Kushner - and that's only Trump's orbit.
There are clearly massive intelligence operations penetrating the country successfully. I don't want to be a puppet of a fascist foreign government any more than I want to be controlled by a fascist domestic one. I'm a hell of a lot more scared of that than FISA, but maybe there's an angle I'm missing. Any problem I have with FISA begins with the fact that it is clearly an utter failure. If you're going to spy on folks, prosecute the fucking bad guys. Someone want to explain their point of view or is this just something I'm out of sync with the left on?
I hope Fat Fuck thinks this stops them watching what he's doing lol.
He's under indictment, so they are watching his every movement
This act was only the thin law flavored covering over what our spy agencies do.
Dont get me wrong, Im glad it got shot down, but they absolutely are and still will be watching what everyone is doing, especially in regards to our adversaries.
Yeah, all the scare tactics about how "oh noes national security is at risk if FISA isn't extended!!!!" are garbage; if Section 702 lapses, existing certifications are already approved for the next year, and the government has other authorities it can do the same kind of surveillance with. And the surveillance he's complaining about wasn't even under this section of FISA -- it's the Title III stuff which doesn't need to be reauthorized!
Godammit. I can only through my support and effort behind only so many issues. Things I thought we had won come back around over and over. This country has gone to an authoritarian shithole
They ask what will happen next. My guess is... nothing changes, someone in the future whistleblows, and 'kills themselves' with a double tap to the back of the head. It's a toss up whether the public will ever know of the whole ordeal.