Sen. Dianne Feinstein's New NSA Bill Will Codify and Extend Mass Surveillance of Americans [View all]

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http://www.opednews.com/articles/Sen-Dianne-Feinstein-s-Ne-by-Trevor-Timm-Federal-Agency-NSA_Feinstein-Dianne-131101-566.html



Sen. Dianne Feinstein's New NSA Bill Will Codify and Extend Mass Surveillance of Americans
OpEdNews Op Eds 11/1/2013 at 10:19:08
By Trevor Timm

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of the NSA's biggest defenders, released what she calls an NSA "reform" bill today.

Don't be fooled: the bill codifies some of the NSA's worst practices, would be a huge setback for everyone's privacy, and it would permanently entrench the NSA's collection of every phone record held by U.S. telecoms. We urge members of Congress to oppose it.

We learned for the first time in June that the NSA secretly twisted and re-interpreted Section 215 of the Patriot Act six years ago to allow them to vacuum up every phone record in America--continuing an unconstitutional program that began in 2001. The new leaks about this mass surveillance program four months ago have led to a sea change in how Americans view privacy, and poll after poll has shown the public wants it to stop.

But instead of listening to her constituents, Sen. Feinstein put forth a bill designed to allow the NSA to monitor their calls. Sen. Feinstein wants the NSA to continue to collect the metadata of every phone call in the United States--that's who you call, who calls you, the time and length of the conversation, and under the government's interpretation, potentially your location--and store it for five years. This is not an NSA reform bill, it's an NSA entrenchment bill.