"All of this political drama neglects a reality which has been pointed out by an earlier CounterPunch essay.[0] The majority of the NSA’s mass interception is sanctioned by other laws. To be precise Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and Executive Order 12333. It’s likely that congress is fixated on Section 215 because politicians view it as an “easy win” that both panders to voters and winks at spies. Flanked by a blitz of press coverage lawmakers can brag to voters about fighting Big Brother without really altering the surveillance apparatus itself."[1]
"The section 215 phone records program was modeled on an earlier, Internet metadata bulk collection program that began after September 11. The FISC approved the Internet metadata program under the pen register/trap and trace (PR/TT) provisions of FISA – as amended by section 214 of the Patriot Act. The Internet metadata program – known as the PR/TT program – had serious compliance problems because it was difficult for the NSA reliably to segregate Internet metadata from Internet content. Still, the FISC continued to approve the PR/TT program, with modifications, until the NSA itself chose to end the program in 2011.
As a result, the FISC’s orders approving bulk metadata collection remain a viable interpretation of the PR/TT provisions of FISA and would have precedential value in any effort to resume bulk collection, whether of Internet or telephony metadata. The PR/TT provisions of FISA are not limited to Internet metadata. If anything, they apply more naturally to traditional telephony metadata, as they cover “dialing, routing, addressing, or signaling” information. Section 214, unlike section 215, is not going to expire tomorrow – it was made permanent in 2005."
> The majority of the NSA’s mass interception is sanctioned by other laws
That's far from clear (its far from clear that the mass interception is authorized at all). It may be that there is more that the government would claim is authorized by other laws than 215, but then its worth keeping in mind that with the metadata collection they've claimed is authorized by 215, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals has found that it was not authorized by 215.
"On The Media" did a special on the PATRIOT Act, with some history, analysis, and predictions. They do mention the same thing: That many of the things we don't like are authorized by other measures.
One part of me is similarly cynical, and that if it was allowed to expire, they "let" it expire. But the hopeful part of me realizes that change happens in increments. Maybe reforms will continue to come, because there will NEVER be a "fix all civil liberties violations" bill.
Another way of viewing it is that they went after an easier target as a sort of test case, to demonstrate and build the political backbone for surveillance reform. This will hopefully make future attempts at more serious reforms easier.
Our elected representatives are finally waking up and growing a pair? Putting aside the sexist expression, are you really under the impression that they all of a sudden have found some courage they didn't have before? You don't think they're just swaying in the political wind of the time?
"All of this political drama neglects a reality which has been pointed out by an earlier CounterPunch essay.[0] The majority of the NSA’s mass interception is sanctioned by other laws. To be precise Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 and Executive Order 12333. It’s likely that congress is fixated on Section 215 because politicians view it as an “easy win” that both panders to voters and winks at spies. Flanked by a blitz of press coverage lawmakers can brag to voters about fighting Big Brother without really altering the surveillance apparatus itself."[1]
[0] http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/05/the-usa-freedom-act-d...
[1] http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/08/will-appeals-court-ru...