Spies, Lies & The NSA

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Barack Obama is facing incredible pressure to answer questions about why he oversaw the spying on foreign leaders, specifically the tapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel. German lawmakers announced that in retaliation they would offer asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden if he will testify about the NSA.

Director of Intelligence James Clapper claimed that foreign agencies conduct these types of spying operations on the United States frequently. Russian leaders were accused at the G-20 summit of passing out ‘bugged gift bags’ that contained USB sticks and chargers containing spyware.

Author of the PATRIOT Act Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) has offered a new bill called the FREEDOM Act which would stop dragnet collections of American phone records. It would also place stronger protections on exactly who can be targeted for surveillance and appoint a special advocate to the FISA courts to protect privacy rights. We’ve provided a copy of this bill below the video report.

The ACLU calls this “real spying reform” writing the following on their website:

Although the USA FREEDOM Act does not fix every problem with the government’s surveillance authorities and programs, it is an important first step and it deserves broad support. It incorporates the language and principles of past reform leaders likeSens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Reps. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), and it is far superior to the proposal recently described by Senate Intelligence Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), which we expect to see shortly. All members of the House and Senate should co-sponsor the USA FREEDOM Act and fight hard for its passage.





USA Freedom Act