Monday, March 31, 2014

The president’s proposal is a red herring (Shahid Buttar)

From the Bill Of Rights Defense Committee (on KPFA, the interview aired on this episode of Upfront):

The president’s proposal is a red herring



Thursday, March 27, 2014 at 2:40 pm by


SB-Pproposal


In a March 26 interview responding to President Obama’s recent proposal to restrain unconstitutional and illegal bulk metadata collection by the National Security Agency, BORDC executive director Shahid Buttar told UpRising Radio:



“Neither of the proposals [presented by President Obama or the congressional heads of the Senate and House intelligence committees] would do anything at all to curtail internet surveillance. They are both [limited to] just phone programs, which is to say all of these proposals respond very specifically to the very first Snowden leak — not any of the dozens that have emerged since…. These are both examples of bills that are publicly presented as reform proposals that ultimately strengthen the NSA’s hand.”


BORDC supports the proposed USA FREEDOM Act, as well as the Surveillance State Repeal Act. The latter, which has also been endorsed by the New York Times, is the only proposal among the over two dozen currently pending before Congress that would address Internet surveillance.