NSA Eavesdropping Shutdown. You’re Free to Talk…for Now!
Patriot Act, Section 215 EXPIRED June 1, 2015
Thanks to political blockades in the United States (U.S.) Senate, on June 1, 2015, Section 215 of the Patriot Act expired, no longer allowing the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect bulk phone records. So go ahead and make those questionable calls to ex-lovers, sex hotlines, prison mainlines, political groups, or radicalization counselors without fear of government monitoring. You are free to talk for the time being, until another bill is introduced and passed reinstituting this practice, which experts predict will be in the next day or two.
Who’s responsible for the blockage of the vote? 2016 Presidential Hopeful and U.S. Senator for Kentucky, Rand Paul. Was this political posturing? Or is he standing up for his political beliefs? Either way, the GOP has lashed out and is on the attack. Politico quoted Republican Senator for Indiana, Dan Coats, as accusing Senator Paul of, “‘lying’ about the matter in order to raise money for his presidential campaign, according to three people who attended the meeting.” Senator Coats later corrected his statement during a CNN interview by stating, “Well I didn’t say he lied. I said that I’m here to correct some statements that have been made that were not factual and were not true and were misrepresenting what this program is.” That’s about as close to calling someone a liar as one can get.
Senator Coats then went on to describe how big a threat ISIS is to the U.S. Continuing to build and exploit fear, politicians from each side of the aisle are reporting that NSA phone data collections are necessary to maintain our safety and remain vigilant against our enemies. Are we truly safer giving up these freedoms? Or is this another case of a Presidential Election posturing to gain support and votes for a candidate? Either way, this blockage of Section 215, permanent or temporary, has reopened the conversation about what lengths we should go for security and what freedoms we are willing to give up.
We can’t help but also question whether Section 215 is actually making us safer or not. Isn’t the collection of telephone data a collection of data prior to a crime occurring? Once a terrorist or potential terrorist becomes known, investigators have other tools to use to piece together who the person is conversing to. The collection was determined by Judge Gerard E. Lynch, of the U.S Court of Appeals, as “an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans.” The ruling of the courts was that the government stretched the bounds of the act and collected data for investigative efforts later. Clearly privacy was outweighed by security in this NSA interpretation.
Is trapping all phone records for later use even the best solution in this ever changing communications environment? Are terrorists actually making phone calls that we can intercept and proactively track them down, or have they progressed to more stealthy communications strategies, like voice over internet (Skype), messaging apps, online chat rooms, videogame chat rooms, etc.? This debate will likely divide Presidential candidates in the coming weeks and force the issue to the forefront and temporarily distract the public from the other issues, like the legalization of marijuana. Which begs the question, are we truly worried about our constitutional rights or are we more concerned with our next high?
Senator Dan Coats, CNN, Interview Discussing Patriot Act, June 1, 2015, http://indypolitics.org/2015/06/01/coats-discusses-patriot-act/
Manu Raju & Burgess Everett, “GOP senators tear into Rand Paul,” Politico, May 31, 2015, http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/gop-senators-tear-into-paul-118475.html
Senator Rand Paul, May 29, 2015, Transcript from Senate Hearing, Washington DC, http://www.paul.senate.gov/news/press/sen-rand-paul-remarks-on-expiration-of-patriot-act
Alexandra Petri, “Section 215 of the Patriot Act is temporarily down. So who you gonna call?,” Washington Post, June 1, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/compost/wp/2015/06/01/section-215-of-the-patriot-act-is-temporarily-down-so-who-you-gonna-call/
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