Key provisions of the Patriot Act may soon lapse in what would be a post-9/11 watershed moment. Your thoughts?

2015-05-30T10:34:24-04:00

At 3:59 p.m. EDT on Sunday, the National Security Agency and telecommunications companies will begin mothballing a once-secret system that collected Americans' bulk telephone records, shutting down computers and sealing off warehouses of digital data.

If the U.S. Congress fails to act, key provisions of the USA Patriot Act will lapse in a watershed moment in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era. Intrusive government powers, created and wielded in the name of preventing another mass-casualty terrorist attack, would be at least partly scaled back, proponents and critics of the surveillance say.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, for instance, will no longer be able to employ "roving wiretaps" aimed at terrorism suspects who use multiple disposable cell phones, and will have more difficulty seizing such suspects' and their associates' personal and business records.

"We're past the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attack. And we can look at these issues more calmly," said Peter Swire, who served on a review panel appointed by President Barack Obama after former contractor Edward Snowden's 2013 revelations of vast NSA surveillance.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/rollback-of-us-spy-powers-would-mark-post-9-11-watershed/ar-BBkpRr9

Rollback of U.S. spy powers would mark post-9/11 watershed

Response by Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS made May 30 at 2015 11:07 AM

2015-05-30T11:07:46-04:00

The increase in government Power since 9/11 was not commensurate with the need. It needs to be reined in. Simple as that. Letting the Patriot act "sunset" is the perfect way to do that.

I like laws that have expiration dates on them. Especially laws that grant our government more Power than it had before. Especially laws that even give the "perception" that they infringe on Freedom. The Patriot Act did both of those things. We can debate all day long whether it actually infringed, but many People thought it could, and honestly, if the People think a law can infringe on their Rights, it probably can.

So, let it expire, and when we Need our Government Servants to have more Power, grant it to them. They were able to pass the Patriot act amazingly fast. Some say too fast. What's to stop that from happening again? It's taken longer to get it gone, that it ever took to get it passed.

Response by PO2 Eric Pope made May 30 at 2015 11:16 AM

2015-05-30T11:16:55-04:00

Good. I do not believe it possible for the government to have all that information and not use it eventually. Some day, some circumstance will justify their digging in to find a fugitive, or whatever and then the precedence is set. So why is that a concern? Imagine a world where speeding tickets show up in the mail as a result of you cell tower hits. Or think of the ammo a political rival would have if they had your meta data from a younger you...

Response by PO2 Eric Pope made May 30 at 2015 11:18 AM

2015-05-30T11:18:23-04:00

Response by Cpl Private RallyPoint Member made May 30 at 2015 12:19 PM

2015-05-30T12:19:03-04:00

"Every step we take towards making the State our Caretaker of our lives, by that much we move toward making the State our Master." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant, to step over the ocean, and crush us at a blow? Never! -- All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest; with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a Thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide."

The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions:
Address Before the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois
January 27, 1838