The U.S. Congress has just signed a bill into law, H.R. 4681 – The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2015, that for the first time provides Congressional consent to U.S. intelligence agencies as they collect and store the private phone and internet communications of everyday U.S. citizens without a court order under a little known Executive Order 12333. On the surface, H.R. 4681 looks like just another annual funding bill for the U.S. intelligence community. However, in Section 309, the Executive Branch is given the awesome power of collecting and storing of any and all “nonpublic” (which is the Federal’ government’s way of saying: “private”) American telephone or electronic communications, with no express Congressional oversight. (This particular surveillance is covered under Executive Order 12333 — not Section 215 of the Patriot Act, meaning it has practically no oversight.) This means that your home phones, your cell phones, your home and work computers, tablets, and any electronic device that connects to the world in anyway can now officially be tracked. Every move you make online can be now be tracked, traced, databased, analyzed and stored by the Executive branch of the U.S. Federal government for up to five years or more. The provision says “any nonpublic telephone or electronic communication” sent by or among Americans that’s intercepted by intelligence agencies without a court order or subpoena can be stored for five years (but the legalese will allow indefinite storage in most cases). Even worse, it can be shared throughout the entire intelligence and law enforcement community without your knowledge or consent… ftmdaily/ftm-radio-show/warrantless-spying/?mc_cid=83db821d21&mc_eid=ecc3b1e21c
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 08:21:03 +0000