Congress Passes Law to Limit Terrorism Information Awareness

[LifeDuringWartime]

The text of the bill is here: http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2003/defapp-tia.html

It basically forces the use of the Terrorism (Total) Information Awareness program to be approved by Congress.

:tinfoilhat:

[kayell]

1. Not copyrighted and short, so I'm posting text here

Congressional Record: July 8, 2003 (House)]
Page H6276-H6303


DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2004

<...>

H.R. 2658

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the
following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the
Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the fiscal year
ending September 30, 2004, for military functions
administered by the Department of Defense and for other
purposes, namely:

<...>

Sec. 8124. Limitation on Deployment of Terrorism
Information Awareness Program.--
(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of law and except
as provided in paragraph (2), if and when research and
development on the Terrorism Information Awareness program
(formerly known as the Total Information Awareness program),
or any component of such program, permits the deployment or
implementation of such program or component, no department,
agency, or element of the Federal Government may deploy or
implement such program or component, or transfer such program
or component to another department, agency, or element of the
Federal Government, until the Secretary of Defense--
(A) notifies Congress of that development, including a
specific and detailed description of--
(i) each element or component of such program intended to
be deployed or implemented; and
(ii) the method and scope of the intended deployment or
implementation of such program or component (including the
data or information to be accessed or used); and
(B) has received specific authorization by law from
Congress for the deployment or implementation of such program
or component, including--
(i) a specific authorization by law for the deployment or
implementation of such program or component; and
(ii) a specific appropriation by law of funds for the
deployment or implementation of such program or component.
(2) The limitation in paragraph (1) shall not apply with
respect to the deployment or implementation of the Terrorism
Information Awareness program, or a component of such
program, in support of the following:
(A) Lawful military operations of the United States
conducted outside the United States.
(B) Lawful foreign intelligence activities conducted wholly
overseas, or wholly against non-United States citizens.

[republicansareevil]

2. This is pretty big, isn't it?

Any experts care to chime in?

[tom_paine]

3. If I know my Imperial Totalitarian Scum

then what Congress does won't matter a whit.

We've seen this occur on several occasions, most notably:

"Faith-Based Funding"
Imperial Senate/House wouldn't touch this hot-button item. During the Days of the Old Republic, that would mean that it could not proceed. Last I heard, of course, Pat Robertson got $25,000,000 ordered by Imperial Fiat for one of his phony evangel programs that was already under investigation (during the Days of the Old Republic) for misappropriation of funds -- pantyhose was among the items our Junior Jesus Men bought-- my question is, did they by it for themselves or their gay lovers?

Google it and see if I'm bullshitting. Imperial Fiat = "Execeutive Order" (in the hands of an Emeperor, not a President of the Old Republic.

"Operation TIPS" was another Orwellian-Totalitarian nightmare that would have turned the air conditioner repair guy into a government snitch (with cash rewards for informing because we aren't yet enough like the Soviets and East Germans).

By Imperial Fiat (no Imperial Senate approval required), now the Penatgon is running Operation TALON, which is just a little bit different from TIPS, yet still involves the filing of uncorroborated denouncements (to use the Bushevik/Soviet term)-- got a neighbor you're pissed at? Call TALON!

There's more, but I can't think of 'em off the top of my head right now. So many Imperial Lies, Fraud, and shitting on the Constituition, one can scarcely keep track of it all.