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NSA Data Collection Program Must End
The Senate's Republican leadership has convinced itself that the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden were just a bad dream. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the chair of that chamber's powerful intelligence committee, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), introduced a bill that would extend the NSA's program to amass a database of Americans' telephone records for five more years.
Apr 29, 2015
The Senate's Republican leadership has convinced itself that the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden were just a bad dream. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the chair of that chamber's powerful intelligence committee, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), introduced a bill that would extend the NSA's program to amass a database of Americans' telephone records for five more years. Unlike the numerous bills that have been introduced since Snowden first disclosed this operation, the McConnell-Burr measure makes no effort to address the bipartisan concerns raised by policy-makers and experts.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act, vastly expanding the intelligence community's powers. Recognizing that such hastily-passed emergency authorities might not be appropriate for all time, lawmakers included what's known as sunsets: the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act lapsed after a certain time unless lawmakers affirmatively reauthorized them. These have been reauthorized several times, with just a few modest fixes. But Congress was sufficiently wary not to put these authorizations on a permanent footing.
In just about a month, one of the most controversial parts of the Patriot Act -- section 215, which permits the government to collect business records relevant to terrorism investigations -- is set to expire. The NSA uses a distorted reading of Section 215 to justify collecting information about millions of Americans who have no link to terrorism whatsoever and without the procedural safeguard of anything resembling a warrant. This is the provision that Sens. McConnell and Burr want to extend.
The theory is that collecting phone records allows the government to discover previously unknown terrorist networks. This notion has been thoroughly discredited.
The administration initially argued that the program had helped prevent 12 terrorism incidents, but it was quickly forced to retreat. It turns out that over seven years, this massive database yielded only one success: catching a Somali taxi-driver who was trying to send $8,500 to the terrorist group Al Shabaab. The President's hand-picked review group - which was stacked with retired intelligence officials - concluded that information obtained from the Section 215 database "was not essential to preventing attacks" and could be obtained quickly through other means. So did the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent watchdog panel established by Congress to review counter-terrorism laws. In the face of indisputable facts, even the intelligence community came around to the view that this database was unnecessary and supported a reform effort late last year.
Maintaining a database of phone records also upends a fundamental premise of the Constitution: The government should only intrude on Americans' private lives if it suspects criminal activity. And while the database doesn't include recordings of actual conversations, it picks up reams of information about who we call and when. This can be even more revealing of our lives. Calls to the National Rifle Association and the local shooting range show that someone may be a gun-owner. Calls to a suicide prevention hotline may tell the government more than it has any right to know about a person's mental health. Political associations and personal ties are easily revealed.
The rationale for the telephone database can be used to collect other types of information as well. The NSA ran an Internet metadata program until 2011 and could well revive it without the public knowing. As we conduct more and more of our lives online, this could allow the government to stockpile information about who we e-mail, which websites we visit and the books and medicines we buy online. Even agencies not concerned with national security are warehousing information. It was recently revealed that for more than two decades starting in 1992, the Drug Enforcement Administration logged virtually all phone calls made from the United States to 116 countries. The people whose calls to family, friends and business associates were picked up weren't suspected of any crime and no court was asked for approval.
Americans understand the risks these programs pose to their privacy. Several polls have been conducted to gauge people's attitudes about electronic surveillance. While the results vary somewhat, the clear trend in the last two years is that the public is increasingly uneasy about digital intrusions of unprecedented scale.
The United States faces a range of threats and intelligence and law enforcement agencies should have the tools to face them. But such tools should be effective and constitutional. The phone records program being pushed by the Senate leadership is neither. Instead of wasting the limited time left before Congress goes on recess, McConnell and Burr should be working to fix the Patriot Act, not blindly endorse it.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. US voters have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. If you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
© 2023 Brennan Center for Justice
Faiza Patel
Faiza Patel serves as Co-Director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. She is also a member of the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. Follow her on Twitter: @FaizaPatelBCJ
The Senate's Republican leadership has convinced itself that the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden were just a bad dream. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the chair of that chamber's powerful intelligence committee, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), introduced a bill that would extend the NSA's program to amass a database of Americans' telephone records for five more years. Unlike the numerous bills that have been introduced since Snowden first disclosed this operation, the McConnell-Burr measure makes no effort to address the bipartisan concerns raised by policy-makers and experts.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act, vastly expanding the intelligence community's powers. Recognizing that such hastily-passed emergency authorities might not be appropriate for all time, lawmakers included what's known as sunsets: the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act lapsed after a certain time unless lawmakers affirmatively reauthorized them. These have been reauthorized several times, with just a few modest fixes. But Congress was sufficiently wary not to put these authorizations on a permanent footing.
In just about a month, one of the most controversial parts of the Patriot Act -- section 215, which permits the government to collect business records relevant to terrorism investigations -- is set to expire. The NSA uses a distorted reading of Section 215 to justify collecting information about millions of Americans who have no link to terrorism whatsoever and without the procedural safeguard of anything resembling a warrant. This is the provision that Sens. McConnell and Burr want to extend.
The theory is that collecting phone records allows the government to discover previously unknown terrorist networks. This notion has been thoroughly discredited.
The administration initially argued that the program had helped prevent 12 terrorism incidents, but it was quickly forced to retreat. It turns out that over seven years, this massive database yielded only one success: catching a Somali taxi-driver who was trying to send $8,500 to the terrorist group Al Shabaab. The President's hand-picked review group - which was stacked with retired intelligence officials - concluded that information obtained from the Section 215 database "was not essential to preventing attacks" and could be obtained quickly through other means. So did the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent watchdog panel established by Congress to review counter-terrorism laws. In the face of indisputable facts, even the intelligence community came around to the view that this database was unnecessary and supported a reform effort late last year.
Maintaining a database of phone records also upends a fundamental premise of the Constitution: The government should only intrude on Americans' private lives if it suspects criminal activity. And while the database doesn't include recordings of actual conversations, it picks up reams of information about who we call and when. This can be even more revealing of our lives. Calls to the National Rifle Association and the local shooting range show that someone may be a gun-owner. Calls to a suicide prevention hotline may tell the government more than it has any right to know about a person's mental health. Political associations and personal ties are easily revealed.
The rationale for the telephone database can be used to collect other types of information as well. The NSA ran an Internet metadata program until 2011 and could well revive it without the public knowing. As we conduct more and more of our lives online, this could allow the government to stockpile information about who we e-mail, which websites we visit and the books and medicines we buy online. Even agencies not concerned with national security are warehousing information. It was recently revealed that for more than two decades starting in 1992, the Drug Enforcement Administration logged virtually all phone calls made from the United States to 116 countries. The people whose calls to family, friends and business associates were picked up weren't suspected of any crime and no court was asked for approval.
Americans understand the risks these programs pose to their privacy. Several polls have been conducted to gauge people's attitudes about electronic surveillance. While the results vary somewhat, the clear trend in the last two years is that the public is increasingly uneasy about digital intrusions of unprecedented scale.
The United States faces a range of threats and intelligence and law enforcement agencies should have the tools to face them. But such tools should be effective and constitutional. The phone records program being pushed by the Senate leadership is neither. Instead of wasting the limited time left before Congress goes on recess, McConnell and Burr should be working to fix the Patriot Act, not blindly endorse it.
Faiza Patel
Faiza Patel serves as Co-Director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. She is also a member of the UN Human Rights Council's Working Group on the Use of Mercenaries. Follow her on Twitter: @FaizaPatelBCJ
The Senate's Republican leadership has convinced itself that the revelations of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden were just a bad dream. Last week, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the chair of that chamber's powerful intelligence committee, Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), introduced a bill that would extend the NSA's program to amass a database of Americans' telephone records for five more years. Unlike the numerous bills that have been introduced since Snowden first disclosed this operation, the McConnell-Burr measure makes no effort to address the bipartisan concerns raised by policy-makers and experts.
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Congress passed the Patriot Act, vastly expanding the intelligence community's powers. Recognizing that such hastily-passed emergency authorities might not be appropriate for all time, lawmakers included what's known as sunsets: the most controversial provisions of the Patriot Act lapsed after a certain time unless lawmakers affirmatively reauthorized them. These have been reauthorized several times, with just a few modest fixes. But Congress was sufficiently wary not to put these authorizations on a permanent footing.
In just about a month, one of the most controversial parts of the Patriot Act -- section 215, which permits the government to collect business records relevant to terrorism investigations -- is set to expire. The NSA uses a distorted reading of Section 215 to justify collecting information about millions of Americans who have no link to terrorism whatsoever and without the procedural safeguard of anything resembling a warrant. This is the provision that Sens. McConnell and Burr want to extend.
The theory is that collecting phone records allows the government to discover previously unknown terrorist networks. This notion has been thoroughly discredited.
The administration initially argued that the program had helped prevent 12 terrorism incidents, but it was quickly forced to retreat. It turns out that over seven years, this massive database yielded only one success: catching a Somali taxi-driver who was trying to send $8,500 to the terrorist group Al Shabaab. The President's hand-picked review group - which was stacked with retired intelligence officials - concluded that information obtained from the Section 215 database "was not essential to preventing attacks" and could be obtained quickly through other means. So did the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, an independent watchdog panel established by Congress to review counter-terrorism laws. In the face of indisputable facts, even the intelligence community came around to the view that this database was unnecessary and supported a reform effort late last year.
Maintaining a database of phone records also upends a fundamental premise of the Constitution: The government should only intrude on Americans' private lives if it suspects criminal activity. And while the database doesn't include recordings of actual conversations, it picks up reams of information about who we call and when. This can be even more revealing of our lives. Calls to the National Rifle Association and the local shooting range show that someone may be a gun-owner. Calls to a suicide prevention hotline may tell the government more than it has any right to know about a person's mental health. Political associations and personal ties are easily revealed.
The rationale for the telephone database can be used to collect other types of information as well. The NSA ran an Internet metadata program until 2011 and could well revive it without the public knowing. As we conduct more and more of our lives online, this could allow the government to stockpile information about who we e-mail, which websites we visit and the books and medicines we buy online. Even agencies not concerned with national security are warehousing information. It was recently revealed that for more than two decades starting in 1992, the Drug Enforcement Administration logged virtually all phone calls made from the United States to 116 countries. The people whose calls to family, friends and business associates were picked up weren't suspected of any crime and no court was asked for approval.
Americans understand the risks these programs pose to their privacy. Several polls have been conducted to gauge people's attitudes about electronic surveillance. While the results vary somewhat, the clear trend in the last two years is that the public is increasingly uneasy about digital intrusions of unprecedented scale.
The United States faces a range of threats and intelligence and law enforcement agencies should have the tools to face them. But such tools should be effective and constitutional. The phone records program being pushed by the Senate leadership is neither. Instead of wasting the limited time left before Congress goes on recess, McConnell and Burr should be working to fix the Patriot Act, not blindly endorse it.
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