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I'm not sure if the Senate is trying to extend the Protect America Act again, but I just caught some of the coverage of the Senate trying to amend the FISA Act. Does anyone know of the details?
mgb_phys said:It's interesting that you can tell a lot about the political state from the naming of the acts.
Name them like bits of obscure tax legislation if you don't want anyone to notice them eg. FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) or RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act)
If you think they are a bit dodgy and you want eveyone on to support them name them so that only a baby-eating communist would object. Patriot Act, Protect America Act, and the Oh_my_god_won't_someone_think_of_the_childen_act.
NateTG said:Having spent some time growing up in Germany, I do find this stuff somewhat ironically amusing since the Nazi's were quite fond of the same sort of jingoistic and orwellian nomenclature.
DrClapeyron said:here in the US we afford persons the oppurtunity to argue their case before a judge.
mgb_phys said:ps. Is this the change that let's them copy any data on your laptop when you travel into the USA?
DrClapeyron said:The Nazis had a constitution yes, but they had no legal system the same as the United States. Whatever was passed in Nazi was law, here in the US we afford persons the oppurtunity to argue their case before a judge.
How many bills has the total membership of PF reviewed, read or given link?
PHOENIX — Authorities said they broke up a sophisticated people-smuggling operation that was bringing multiple groups a day across the border in Cochise County to safe houses in Phoenix.
Two Cuban immigrants among those arrested were in charge of the operation that, on average, brought across four to six loads a day, each with six to 10 individuals who had paid $2,500 to get into the United States illegally, Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said Thursday.
There were 48 people named in the indictments. Ten of them were in custody.
Piano said the Cubans had been smuggling individuals for about a year — meaning they could be responsible for more than 20,000 people entering this country illegally.
But he said the operation was far more elaborate than just the two main suspects. He said it was so well organized that they actually contracted out much of the work.
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.
edward said:That one operation smuggled in 20,000 people in one year. Is the DHS so naive as to think that they are all just honest people looking for a better life?? It is possible for a Middle Easterner to learn to speak Spanish.
Statement of Ron Paul on H.R. 5104
A bill to extend the Protect America Act of 2007 for 30 Days
30 January 2008
Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.
Madame Speaker, I rise in opposition to the extension of the Protect America Act of 2007 because the underlying legislation violates the US Constitution.
The mis-named Protect America Act allows the US government to monitor telephone calls and other electronic communications of American citizens without a warrant. This clearly violates the Fourth Amendment...
InfraGard is a United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) program that began in the Cleveland, Ohio, Field Office in 1996. It was a local effort to gain support from the information technology industry and academia for the FBI's investigative efforts in the cyber arena. The program expanded to other FBI Field Offices, and in 1998 the FBI assigned national program responsibility for InfraGard to the former National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC) directed by RADM James B. Plehal USNR and to the FBI's Cyber Division in 2003.
Operation TIPS, where the last part is an acronym for the Terrorism Information and Prevention System, was designed by President George W. Bush to have United States citizens report suspicious activity.
It came under intense scrutiny in July of 2002 when the Washington Post alleged in an editorial that the program was vaguely defined.
Overview
The program's website implied that US workers who had access to private citizens' homes, such as cable installers and telephone repair workers, would be reporting on what was in people's homes if it were deemed "suspicious."
Operation TIPS was accused of doing an "end run" around the United States Constitution, and the original wording of the website was subsequently changed. President Bush's former Attorney General, John Ashcroft denied that private residences would be surveiled by private citizens operating as government spies.
FindLaw) -- The FBI, no longer content with working to maintain order at political events, is now preemptively identifying and interrogating ("interviewing") possible demonstrators. It has summarized this strategy in a memo.
To make matters worse, the Department of Justice blessed the FBI strategy in its own memo -- suggesting that no First Amendment concerns are raised by the interrogations.
The FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) is a federal law that governs the surveillance and collection of information of foreign individuals and organizations by the United States government. It is being amended in response to concerns about its potential for abuse and violations of privacy rights.
The amendments to the FISA Act include increased oversight and transparency measures, such as requiring the government to disclose more information about the surveillance requests it makes, and implementing stricter requirements for the approval of surveillance warrants.
The FISA Act is being amended by the United States Congress, which has the power to make changes to federal laws. The Senate and the House of Representatives both have committees that oversee intelligence and surveillance issues, and they are responsible for drafting and passing the amendments.
The amendments to the FISA Act are expected to increase oversight and accountability for surveillance operations, making it more difficult for the government to obtain warrants and collect information without proper justification. This may also lead to a decrease in the amount of information collected and the number of surveillance requests made.
The amendments to the FISA Act have not yet been passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, so their effective date is still undetermined. However, the amendments are currently being debated and are expected to be voted on in the near future.