New NSA domestic spy program too clumsy to use: U.S. senator

[Little Tich]

Source: Yahoo! News / Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A new, more limited system for monitoring Americans' phone calls for signs of terrorist intent is so slow and cumbersome that the U.S. National Security Agency will likely never use it, a senior Senate Republican said.

Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, opposed the new system when it was mandated earlier this year. He said this week he was not concerned by how the NSA will transition to it because it will probably not be used.

The NSA, which spies on electronic communications worldwide, is weeks away from ending its former indiscriminate vacuuming of information about Americans' phone calls, or metadata, and replacing it with a more targeted system.

Burr made his comments as lawmakers and Obama administration officials continue to disagree about the new approach to call monitoring, set to take effect on Nov. 29 under a law that overhauled domestic surveillance practices. It will replace a system exposed publicly more than two years ago by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and denounced by civil liberties advocates as overly intrusive.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/nsa-domestic-spy-program-too-clumsy-u-senator-213336963.html

[christx30]

1. Proves that one person CAN make a difference. n/t

[Demeter]

2. Proves that the NSA is asinine

Their best brain is on vacation in Russia.

Their program is exposed as the shit it always was.

What's wrong with a warrant? A REAL one, not a Kangaroo Court one.

In criminal law, Blackstone's formulation (also known as Blackstone's ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle that:

"It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer",

...as expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his seminal work, Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.

Historically, the details of the ratio have varied, but the message that government and the courts must err on the side of innocence has remained constant.

[valerief]

3. Probably all full of Russian trojans, worms, and viruses. nt

[JDPriestly]

4. It is not difficult to get a warrant and comply with the Fourth Amendment.

The NSA and its friends should propose an amendment to the Constitution if they think the Constitution is not relevant today. Let's see how far they get with that.

[joshcryer]

5. He's basically confirming the NSA will ignore it under FISA.

And just continue business as usual since the secret courts will let them.

[Thor_MN]

6. How about tasking the NSA with something useful, like ending spammers?

Should be much simpler than finding terrorists. I get 2 to 3 calls a day violating the do not call regs.