Submitted by EquityNet on
07/03/2015 03:02 -0400
Earlier this week the FISA court ruled the NSA can
continue the bulk collection of phone metadata until November 29. This comes
after Congressional gridlock allowed for Section 215 of the Patriot Act, the
legal cover for the collection program, to expire on June 1.
The secret court’s ruling overturns that of the US
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which ruled in favor of the ACLU’s
suit claiming Section 215 could not be reasonably interpreted to allow the bulk
collection of our phone data back in May. In his statement, FISA Judge Michael
Mosman irreverently stated, “Second Circuit rulings are not binding on the
FISC, and this Court respectfully disagrees with that Court’s analysis,
especially in view of the intervening enactment of the USA Freedom Act.”
Speaking of the Freedom Act, let’s back up for a
minute. If you recall, the Freedom Act was enacted on June 2 and gave the NSA
six months to drop its spying program, but permitted the agency to continue
collecting data during that time. The only catch is that the act didn’t include
language that related to the Second Court’s ruling, so it was left unclear
whether or not collection could legally resume, until the FISA court stepped in
and trumped a federal court of appeals’ decision, that is.
Maybe this absurd decision to “revive” a “dead” spying
program actually has some genius behind it. What if they just need a little
more time to complete amassing enough data so they can create the best
algorithmic trading platform in existence? Maybe then, they could capture the
profits to erase the debt! After all, why wait to hash Twitter when you know
what people are typing as they type it… hold on… someone’s at the door.
[original]
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