{"id":1940,"date":"2016-01-01T07:05:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T14:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/?p=1940"},"modified":"2024-09-23T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T19:25:53","slug":"amash-massie-warn-of-secret-surveillance-provision-in-spending-package","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/amash-massie-warn-of-secret-surveillance-provision-in-spending-package\/","title":{"rendered":"Amash, Massie Warn of Secret Surveillance Provision in Spending Package"},"content":{"rendered":"

The conspiracy of Republican and Democrat congressional leaders to hide a massive surveillance bill inside the $1.1-trillion spending package passed last week has drawn the criticism of a couple of constitutionally consistent congressmen.<\/p>\n

Representatives Justin Amash (R-Mich.; shown on right) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.; left) have issued statements vilifying the omnibus spending bill\u2019s provision implementing the Cybersecurity Act of 2015.<\/p>\n

The potential expansion of federal surveillance capacity under the terms of this bill is so immense that Amash told Truth in Media that it may be the \u201cworst anti-piracy vote\u201d since the passage of the PATRIOT Act in 2001.<\/p>\n

Echoing his colleague\u2019s concerns, Massie wrote on his Facebook page, \u201cWe learned last night [December 15] that in addition to unsustainable spending, the giant omnibus includes completely unrelated legislation to expand warrantless domestic cyber surveillance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only does the spending bill contain billions of dollars in funding for unquestionably unconstitutional programs and policies, but it will allow the federal domestic spying apparatus to achieve previously prohibited levels of unwarranted searches, seizures, and sharing of personal data of Americans caught in the surveillance dragnet.<\/p>\n

Amash told Truth in Media that these provisions were purposefully buried deep enough to avoid notice by the people\u2019s representatives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese provisions were quietly slipped into the omnibus to avoid full scrutiny. We take an oath to defend the Constitution, and our Fourth Amendment privacy protections are as important as anything,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the most constitutionally egregious aspect of all the Fourth Amendment violations contained in the new law (the measure was signed by President Obama on December 18) is the fact that all the authority to spy on Americans without a warrant was formerly rejected in one form or another by the same senators and congressmen who approved it last week.<\/p>\n

As reported by Truth in Media:<\/p>\n

The Cybersecurity Act of 2015\u00a0brings together provisions from other bills that have been passed in either the House or the Senate in 2015, such as the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) and\u00a0the\u00a0Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), which both\u00a0give the U.S. government\u00a0access to Internet traffic information from technology and manufacturing companies.<\/p>\n

In an article published in 2014, this author highlighted the deprivations<\/a> of liberty linked to CISPA and CISA:<\/p>\n

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) joined a group of 35 civil society organizations, companies, and security experts that sent a letter appealing to President Obama to veto CISA (S. 2588). The letter states:<\/p>\n

CISA fails to offer a comprehensive solution to cybersecurity threats. Further, the bill contains inadequate protections for privacy and civil liberties. Accordingly, we request that you promptly pledge to veto CISA. We also request that you issue a similar veto\u00a0threat for any future legislation that takes a similar approach on information sharing. A\u00a0robust approach to cybersecurity is necessary to protect the security of the internet\u00a0and those who use it.<\/p>\n

The letter goes on to point out that this latest incarnation of an Internet control bill makes little more than \u201ccosmetic changes to CISPA\u201d:<\/p>\n

CISA presents many of the same problems the Administration previously identified with\u00a0CISPA in its veto threat. Privacy experts have pointed out how CISA would damage\u00a0the privacy and civil liberties of users. Language in CISA, like CISPA, also bypasses\u00a0the Administration\u2019s previously stated preference of having a civilian agency lead U.S.\u00a0cybersecurity efforts in favor of automatic and simultaneous transfer of cybersecurity\u00a0information to U.S. intelligence agencies, like the National Security Agency.<\/p>\n

In a blog post announcing its contribution to the letter, EFF says of CISA:<\/p>\n

“The bill fails to provide privacy protections for Internet users and allows information sharing in a wide variety of circumstances that could potentially harm journalists and whistleblowers. Like its previous iterations, it also contains overbroad immunity from lawsuits for corporations that share information. As the letter points out, it even contains a broad new categorical exemption from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act, the first since the Act\u2019s passage in 1966.”<\/p>\n

As is the case with these twin terrors, the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 will benefit the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Pentagon\u2019s overall effort to put every person in the United States under the watchful eye of the military and the myriad federal agencies participating in the surveillance program.<\/p>\n

A CNBC article reports on the provision of the new \u201claw\u201d that effectively removes all barriers between the various members of the surveillance squad:<\/p>\n

In essence, the law allows companies to directly share information with the Department of Defense (including the National Security Agency) without fear of being sued. This info can be used for cybersecurity purposes, but critics have keyed into the law’s allowance for using the data to address or investigate a “specific threat” of death, serious bodily harm, serious economic harm, terrorism, harm to a minor and more.<\/p>\n

While earlier versions of the Cybersecurity Act allowed sharing of data only in cases of \u201cimminent threat,\u201d the version signed into law removes those hurdles, clearing the path for the interagency passing of the personal data of millions of Americans never accused of any crime.<\/p>\n

Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) described such a situation as a \u201cblack mark,\u201d and released the following statement on his official website:<\/p>\n

Ultimately, I cannot vote for this badly flawed CISA bill. The latest version of CISA is the worst one yet \u2014 it contains substantially fewer oversight and reporting provisions than the Senate version did. That means that violations of Americans’ privacy will be more likely to go unnoticed.<\/p>\n

Unnoticed by all: the governors and the governed.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the surreptitious nature of the passage of this \u201claw\u201d disqualifies it for the respect due to that term, as the basis for all valid law in the United States is that it is made with the consent of the governed.<\/p>\n

How can a surveillance measure in a bill that comes in at over 2,000 pages and was apparently intentionally hidden from lawmakers purport to be made with the consent of the governed?<\/p>\n

Defense of civil liberty \u2014 even in cyberspace \u2014 is crucial, especially in light of President Obama\u2019s insistence that \u201cthe cyber threat is one of the most serious economic and national security challenges we face as a nation\u201d and that \u201cAmerica’s economic prosperity in the 21st century will depend on cybersecurity.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 and so many other federal programs that are steadily and stealthily chipping away at our civil liberties that are the very foundation of our Republic, the will in Washington is to place every aspect of the lives of every American under the close watch of the federal government.<\/p>\n

There is no party in Washington, D.C. committed to preventing the officers of the federal government from forcing Americans inside the Panopticon.<\/p>\n

Contrary to President Obama\u2019s declaration that American prosperity depends on cybersecurity, friends of freedom know that the perpetuation of our Republic and the rights we enjoy depends on a return to first principles of liberty and a fearless defense of the Constitution that stands as sentinel of the natural rights granted to all men by their Creator.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The conspiracy of Republican and Democrat congressional leaders to hide a massive surveillance bill inside the $1.1-trillion spending package passed last week has drawn the criticism of a couple of constitutionally consistent congressmen. Representatives Justin Amash (R-Mich.; shown on right) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.; left) have issued statements vilifying the omnibus spending bill\u2019s provision implementing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-1940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-volume-49","cat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1940"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15871,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1940\/revisions\/15871"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gemstatepatriot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}