NSA bulk collection of phone data stops; Senate stalls as deadline passes

[jaysunb]

Source: Los Angeles Times

fter 14 years and hundreds of millions of records of Americans’ telephone calls, the National Security Agency stopped bulk collection of phone data Sunday, officials said, as legal authority for the once-secret program expired..

The move came as the Senate stalled on efforts to reform the agency’s authority. The portion of the 2006 Patriot Act amendments that the NSA has argued allows collection of telephone calling data and other records expired at midnight in Washington.

Late afternoon Sunday, intelligence officials said they had started shutting down the system for scooping up and recording phone call data, which was put in place after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The NSA collects what it calls metadata — records that include the numbers called from a phone and the length of calls, but not the content of the conversations.


Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-na-senate-nsa-20150531-story.html#page=1

[NaturalHigh]

1. "NSA bulk collection of phone data stops"...

Somehow I'm not that confident. Now if it said "Legal NSA bulk collection of phone data stops" maybe...

[Rossi]

15. Right. They will never stop doing it.

It will just go further undercover.

[NaturalHigh]

21. That's my opinion too.

[cstanleytech]

2. Uh huh and what about the rest of the alphabet soup?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Intelligence_Community

[Rossi]

22. Good question.

Then there are also the spy organizations so secret they never even get in to Wikipedia.

[Warpy]

3. I'll be deeply shocked if any of it actually stops

not since they've built that shiny new data center to store it all.

They'll keep doing it and calling it something else. Any nosy Congressman will be stonewalled.

[Rossi]

16. Bluffdale, Utah NSA site

They are going to shut this down?

[Fred Sanders]

18. That is only the part above ground...maybe that tent in the lower right might be shut down?

[Blue_Tires]

4. QUICK! Everyone start calling ISIS!

[Jack Rabbit]

5. This might be the first and last time I'll ever say this, but . . .

. . . thank you, Senator Paul.

[phleshdef]

6. Good job Senator Paul. Fuck you on most everything else, but praise is due when its due.

We know they will get around this, but I do respect what Rand Paul orchestrated here. He will (thankfully) never be President. But at this point, it wouldn't be too bad if he hung around the Republican side of the Senate for awhile and continued these kinds of actions. Having one of their own to be both right on an important issue and being an effective pain in their ass is a good thing as far as I am concerned.

[shaayecanaan]

11. I like it when people have convictions, even if I don't agree with them (nt)

[Fred Sanders]

19. Praise is also due to President Obama who also wanted this gone??

The USA Freedom Act had the overwhelming support of the House, but 57 in the Senate fell short.....

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/obama-pushes-senate-to-pass-patriot-act-extension/

The president also outlined the specifics of the legislation, which would end the bulk metadata program as it exists. The government would also no longer be the gatekeepers of the phone records -- "telephone providers will," he said.

The bill also includes added safeguards to surveillance laws to "help build confidence among the American people that your privacy and civil liberties are being protected," Mr. Obama said.



"Put the politics aside," the president urged in the video. "Put our national security first. Pass the USA Freedom Act -- now. And let's protect the security and civil liberties of every American."

[Psephos]

20. umm, nice try

Obama and Paul are on directly opposite sides of this issue.

[BeanMusical]

7. Yeah, sure they stopped.

And pink elephants fly along purple giraffes.

[Helen Borg]

8. Haha, yep, I'm sure it's all stopped right now.

All the spying infrastructure was switched off with a big switch.

[Ford_Prefect]

9. What happens to all they have collected so far?

Last edited Mon Jun 1, 2015, 07:46 AM - Edit history (1)

Is it handed off to private firms to hold and analyze? Is there going to be an auction of the un-used data and equipment, or just a garage sale?
http://www.thenation.com/article/208481/how-private-contractors-have-created-shadow-nsa

Does the mega-buck storage facility outside Salt Lake City turn into a roller-rink and senior center?.

Do the private contractors go home or just get re-tasked to do "data-enhancement"? Who gets their parking spaces?

Who will pay for service fees when the phone companies collect and hold the data? Who will monitor compliance and quality control? Can stock holders buy and sell options on the value of the Meta-Data?

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/01/us/politics/senate-nsa-surveillance-usa-freedom-act.html?_r=0

Key Parts of Patriot Act Expire Temporarily as Senate Moves Toward Limits on Spying.
....
The expiration of three key provisions of the Patriot Act means that, for now, the N.S.A. will no longer collect newly created logs of Americans’ phone calls in bulk. It also means that the F.B.I. cannot invoke the Patriot Act to obtain, for new investigations, wiretap orders that follow a suspect who changes phones, wiretap orders for a “lone wolf” terrorism suspect not linked to a group, or court orders to obtain business records relevant to an investigation.

However, the Justice Department may invoke a so-called grandfather clause to keep using those powers for investigations that had started before June 1, and there are additional workarounds investigators may use to overcome the lapse in the authorizations.

[shaayecanaan]

10. None of this would have happened without the Snowden revelations

If it weren't for him the patriot act would have been extended till kingdom come in a straight up and down vote.

[bemildred]

12. And that is what all the security theater we are subjected to is really about.

Have to defend the economic class system, can't have the proles running around unmonitored.

[Demeter]

13. This is an excellent start to regaining the Bill of Rights

The battle is just begun. We must chop off one leg at a time, because

1) we don't know how many legs there are
2) the System will resist with all its considerable might


But, the People have spoken, loudly and clearly. We want our government out of our personal communications.

Now, we just have to fight for it. Taking out the legal pretexts is the first start.


Pretty soon, cutting off the electricity and cooling water for the big Data Dumps....

[marble falls]

14. Finally some do nothing that works in out favor!

[valerief]

17. I wonder what's being transmitted over phones now during the "supposed" spyless lull.

I don't mean bomb-tossing terrorist bullshit. I mean the real terrorism. Vote theft setup.