As Media Obsesses on Oprah 2020, FISA Pushed to Let FBI Spy On You Without A Warrant

Justin Amash is countering this bill with legislation that would seek to end the government"s ongoing practice of warrantless searches and seizures.

Fed Gov’t Just Admitted It Will Continue Warrantless Spying—Even If Congress Votes to Stop It

U.S. officials admit they are not planning on shutting down the government"s warrantless spying program, even if it is not reauthorized by 2018.

Media Silent as Fed Committee Quietly Passes Act Allowing Warrantless Searches

The USA Liberty Act—which is the opposite of its namesake—has moved forward in Congress with overwhelming support from the House Judiciary Committee.

Media Silent As Gov’t Uses Vegas Shooting to Push Bill Allowing Warrantless Searches

As the mainstream media provides relentless coverage of the Harvey Weinstein Hollywood sex scandal, there is one major piece of legislation it is ignoring, and if passed, it will have massive repercussions for all Americans.

More than 40 organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Freedom of the Press Foundation, have joined together to condemn the USA Liberty Act, a trendy name for a dangerous bill that reauthorizes and creates additional loopholes for Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee, the coalition noted that one of the most obvious problems with the USA Liberty Act is that it fails to address concerns with the “backdoor search loophole,” which allows the government to “conduct warrantless searches for the information of individuals who are not targets of Section 702, including U.S. citizens and residents.”

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“The USA Liberty Act departs from the recommendation made by the President’s Review Group on Surveillance, appropriations amendments that have previously passed the House, and urgings of civil society organizations, which would have required a probable cause warrant prior to searching the Section 702 database for information about a U.S. citizen or resident absent narrow exceptions. As written, it raises several concerns. First, the bill’s most glaring deficiency is that it does not require a warrant to access content in cases where the primary purpose is to return foreign intelligence. This is an exception that threatens to swallow the rule.”

Not surprisingly, the USA Liberty Act claims that it will “better protect Americans’ privacy” by requiring the government to have “a legitimate national security purpose” before searching an individual’s database. Then when they do have that purpose established, they will be required to “obtain a court order based on probable cause to look at the content of communications, except when lives or safety are threatened, or a previous probable cause-based court order or warrant has been granted.”

However, as The Free Thought Project previously reported, what the USA Liberty Act does not advertise is the fact that the FBI’s “legitimate national security purpose” could be justified by just about any reason the agency chooses to give, and agents will only need supervisory authority in order to search Americans’ metadata.

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As the coalition noted in its letter, “the bill’s current language leaves room for the government to conduct queries and access content for law enforcement purposes without a warrant,” which should be considered a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment.

“The current language does not make clear that the government must have a warrant to access content for law enforcement searches where the purpose may not be to specifically obtain evidence of a crime, or in cases where there may be a dual foreign intelligence and criminal purpose. As such, the bill could still permit the government to conduct queries and access content without a warrant in cases involving criminal investigations and prosecutions.”

The coalition also criticized the USA Liberty Act’s broad consent and emergency exceptions, noting that, “the emergency provision does not parallel analogous provisions in FISA and require imminence or that the government go back to the FISA court for a warrant after beginning the emergency surveillance.”

While the government claims the purpose of FISA is to allow surveillance on the communications of foreign targets who were suspected terrorists, it should be noted that the law has been used to spy on the communications of innocent Americans—despite the practice being ruled illegal—and any reauthorization of the law will only allow the practice to continue under the guise of “preventing terrorism.”

When the USA Patriot Act was passed in 2001, and the USA Freedom Act was passed in 2015, the U.S. government used fear-based propaganda disguised in the form of All-American titled legislation, which was spread without contest by the mainstream media. Section 702 is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2017, which means that Americans will likely see the same game come into play as the government prepares to pass the USA Liberty Act—a bill that is the opposite of its namesake.

5 Critical Stories Being Ignored While We All Watch Hollywood Implode

The Harvey Weinstein Hollywood sex scandal dominated the news cycle this week, as over 20 women publicly accused the media mogul of sexual harassment and assault—a massive revelation. However, as a result of the swarm of media coverage, several significant stories fell under the radar.

Here are 5 critical stories being ignored while America watches Hollywood burn:

1. Police Have Begun Making Massive Reversals in the Official Vegas Narrative

Police made significant changes to the timeline of the Las Vegas shooting this week, which drastically changed the official narrative. First, the story was that suspect Stephen Paddock encountered Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos in the hallway, and shot him in the leg after he unloaded a volley of bullets into a crowd of 22,000 people at the Route 91 Harvest Festival.

In the revised timeline, which is actually backed up by audio that was released this week, Paddock shot Campos at least 6 minutes before he opened fire on the crowd from his window on the 32nd floor, and he fired a total of about 200 rounds into the hallway. A nearby maintenance worker witnessed the scene and reported it, which should have given law enforcement a clear location of exactly where their target was before the massacre officially began.

There have also been reports claiming that after police announced the significant change in the timeline involving Jesus Campos, he has since canceled several media interviews, and his family is under a gag order.

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Since Monday home of @MandalayBay security guard, Jesus Campos, guarded by private security– today armed. #LasVegasShooting pic.twitter.com/6GZgGHB1eM

— Craig Fiegener (@CraigNews3LV) October 11, 2017

2. Congress is Considering a Law That Will Make The Government’s Spying Powers Permanent

In the days after 9/11, the United States government preyed on the fear felt by many Americans to justify the passage of the USA Patriot Act—a law that gave the government unprecedented spying powers and became a vital component of the “War on Terror.”

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Now, one of the most crucial provisions that the government has used to justify spying on innocent Americans is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2017. In response, the USA Liberty Act has become the latest trendy name for a law that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which allows “the collection of electronic communications by non-U.S. persons for use in our nation’s defense,” according to the House Judiciary Committee.

However, what the USA Liberty Act does not advertise is the fact that it does not actually address the legitimate problems that exist with Section 702. While the purpose of FISA was reportedly only to allow surveillance on the communications of foreign targets who were suspected terrorists, it has been used to spy on the communications of innocent Americans—despite the practice being ruled illegal—and any reauthorization of the law will only allow the practice to continue under the guise of “defeating terrorism.”

3. A Newly Passed Law will Jail Parents if Their Kids are Caught Bullying

A new law is now in effect in North Tonawanda, New York, that sets a troubling precedent for cities across the country. While it is no secret that bullying is an issue among children and teenagers, lawmakers have decided that parents should be held accountable for their child’s actions—even to the extent that they face jail time if their child is caught bullying.

As a professor of law and psychology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, noted, “Very little research has been done to determine the effectiveness of laws that hold parents criminally liable. It’s often just a way for politicians to look hard on juvenile delinquency.”

The new law states:

“Members of the North Tonawanda Common Council hope the new law will put a stop to bullying by holding parents accountable for their children’s actions. Parents could be fined $250 and sentenced to 15 days in jail if twice in a 90-day period their child under 18 violates the city’s curfew or any other city law, including bullying.”

4. Evidence Emerges Showing the FBI was Behind the 2015 ISIS Terror Attack in Texas

The only person injured in the first ISIS-claimed terrorist attack on U.S. soil in 2015 is now suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a lawsuit claiming agents “solicited, encouraged, directed and aided members of ISIS in planning and carrying out the May 3 attack.”

Bruce Joiner, a security guard who was shot and wounded when two men opened fire outside of a “Draw Muhammad” contest in Garland, Texas, is seeking $8 million in damages.

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As the Washington Examiner noted, if Joiner does not reach a settlement with the Bureau, “the case could shake loose hundreds of documents from both local and federal officials about what happened that day, and could answer the question of why an FBI agent was in a car directly behind the attackers and did nothing as the events unfolded.”

Not only was an FBI agent in the car directly behind the suspects, the FBI had been in contact with one of the suspects for years, and they were well aware that he was considered vulnerable to radicalization.

5. ‘Out of Sight, Out of Mind’ — 70+ Kids are ‘Missing’ from Foster Care

More than 70 foster children are currently missing in the state of Kansas, highlighting a troubling disconnect between the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF), which oversees foster care in the state, and the private foster care contractors that the state utilizes to oversee the direct placement of children within foster homes.

One of the main foster care contractors, KVC Kansas, admitted that it has roughly 38 missing children, and Saint Francis Community Services admitted that 36 children are missing from its database. To put that into context, Kansas has around 7,100 foster children, which means that around 1 percent of them have gone missing.

Chairman of the state’s Child Welfare System Task Force, Rep. Steve Alford, said he is not surprised by the number of missing children because of the separation between DCF and the contractors. “Once the children … (go from the court) into the possession of the secretary, she hands them off to the contractors and it’s their responsibility, you know, it’s kind of like out of sight, out of mind in a lot of aspects,” Alford said.

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9/11 Gave Us the Police State With the ‘Patriot’ Act, After Vegas Get Ready for ‘USA Liberty’ Act

After 9/11, the United States government preyed on the fear felt by many Americans to justify the passage of the USA Patriot Act—a law that was supposed to prevent future terrorist attacks. Now, after the Las Vegas shooting, the government has another proposed law ready to go, and just as with the Patriot Act, it also infringes on Americans’ liberties, and does very little for their security.

The USA Liberty Act is the latest trendy name for a law that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which is set to expire on Dec. 31, 2017. According to the House Judiciary Committee, the act would preserve “the core purpose of Section 702: the collection of electronic communications by non-U.S. persons for use in our nation’s defense.”

However, it should be noted that while the purpose of FISA was reportedly only to allow surveillance on the communications of foreign targets who were suspected terrorists, it has been used to spy on the communications of innocent Americans—despite the practice being ruled illegal—and any reauthorization of the law will only allow the practice to continue under the guise of “preventing terrorism.”

The USA Liberty Act claims that it will “better protect Americans’ privacy” by requiring the government to have “a legitimate national security purpose” before searching an individual’s database. Then when they do have that purpose established, they will be required to “obtain a court order based on probable cause to look at the content of communications, except when lives or safety are threatened, or a previous probable cause-based court order or warrant has been granted.”

But what the USA Liberty Act does not advertise is the fact that it does not actually address the legitimate problems that exist with Section 702. The FBI’s “legitimate national security purpose” could be justified by just about any reason the agency chooses to give, and agents will only need supervisory authority in order to search Americans’ metadata.

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One of the most important things to remember about Section 702 is that, as the Constitution Project noted, it gives domestic law enforcement agencies access to the data seized by the NSA, while allowing the NSA to “retain and disseminate Americans’ communications that may contain any evidence of any crime.”

In a press release on the new act, the House Judiciary Committee bragged about the “bipartisan success” of the USA Freedom Act in June 2015, claiming that it “ended the bulk collection of data, protected civil liberties and national security, and provided robust oversight and transparency of our vital national security tools.”

However, as The Free Thought Project reported in May 2015, the USA Freedom Act “doesn’t actually end or suspend the phone records program, but simply requires phone companies to hold onto these records rather than the NSA.” It also authorized, for the first time, “the NSA, FBI, and other government agencies to unconstitutionally collect data in bulk on potentially millions of law-abiding Americans,” and it let the NSA collect “cell phone records in addition to the landline call records.”

In the same way that the USA Patriot Act was the opposite of patriotic in 2001, the USA Freedom Act only took away freedom in 2015. Do not be fooled by the title—the USA Liberty Act in 2017 has nothing to do with expanding “liberty.”