back to article NSA dragnet domestic phone records slurp halted after key spying powers lapse

A number of key provisions in the US Patriot Act lapsed at midnight on Sunday, after the Senate failed to get its act together, much to the chagrin of the White House. It means that – for the first time in almost 14 years – g-men have temporarily lost the authority to scoop up and store phone call records of State-side …

  1. K
    Big Brother

    But the bit they didn't mention

    Its going to take 12-18 months to "shut it down",

    Which just happens to be enough time to have another dozen attempts to get it re-instated. The politicians will get so fed up with it constantly on their "discussion" list that they'll pass it through just to get rid of it!

    1. Mad Mike

      Re: But the bit they didn't mention

      How does it take 12-18 months? You simply pull the cable and stop the data flow!!

      1. K

        Re: But the bit they didn't mention

        Because that is the beauty of bureaucracy ...

        • Congress has to notify the DoD (30 days)
        • DoD requests confirmation from Congress (30 days)
        • Congress confirm to DoD (15 days)
        • DoD inform NSA of requirement to shutdown (15 days)
        • NSA raise question about shutdown and refer it back to DoD (15 days)
        • DoD return to congress for answer to questions (30 days)
        • Congress reply to DoD with answers (30 days)
        • DoD forward answers to NSA (15 days)
        • NSA not happy with and refer it back to DoD
        • ..... and the beat goes on!

        Welcome to the way western governments work!

        1. Fehu
          Holmes

          Re: But the bit they didn't mention

          The part they didn't mention, but everyone except the tea party dullards understood is that this was just a pitiful bit of political theater that Rand Paul wants to use in an advertising campaign. "I single handedly stopped that evil bugger Obama from listening in on your phones!" he will say. Even though that is hardly the truth and the provisions of the Patriot Act that were allowed to expire will be reauthorized later this week providing no interruption in warrantless spying on American citizens. Same as it ever was.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wikipedia must be wrong then

    Vaudeville:

    Vaudeville is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment. It was especially popular in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s.

  3. Mad Mike

    Really? I doubt it.

    Given the complete contempt the NSA has shown for the law in the past, does anybody really believe it will be shut down?

    It'll just carry on, but they'll deny it and threaten anybody who tries to expose it.

    This is probably not worth worrying about now anyway. The horse has bolted. People should really be asking what more they're doing, rather than going over old ground.

  4. Ashton Black

    Controversial

    "US President Barak Obama had earlier lobbied the Senate to support the Freedom Act because it offered reforms for "the most controversial provision ... the gathering of phone exchanges in a single government database".

    The proposed legislation would still allow law enforcement to access mobile phone metadata of American citizens but it won't be able to stockpile it. Instead, phone companies would be required to store the records and then respond to lawful access requests on a case-by-case basis."

    That's not the controversial bit, IMHO. It doesn't address secret courts rubber stamping warrants and gag orders, without effective oversight. All the Freedom Act does, is move who holds the raw data.

    As a Rightpondian it doesn't actually matter to me, as our overlords are in the process of passing even more draconian rules. *sigh*

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If it looks like bullshit, smells like bullshit then chances are it is bullshit.

    Good old U. S. of B...

    Were not much better in the U.K. of B. though...

    Winter is coming, a cold dark one where your opinion or beliefs will put you in jail.

  6. Wibble
    Gimp

    Will it matter?

    Won't the NSA just use GCHQ to do their spying for them -- legally?

  7. Velv
    Big Brother

    It's not like a small thing such as a law has stopped them doing whatever they want up to now...

  8. Jimbo in Thailand
    Black Helicopters

    Well, we all know what's coming next...

    That's right boys and girls, it's time for another nasty false flag event to put Sen. Rand Paul and his pro-US-Constitution buddies on the back foot for running the clock down on some provisions of the heinous [anti]Patriot Act. I won't be a bit surprised if another 'terrorist' episode magically rears its ugly head shortly. Obama learned from George Dubya Bush that nothing works better to stomp on those pesky tenets of the US Constitution than to pump up the nation's fear factor. Time will tell.

    1. phil dude
      Boffin

      Re: Well, we all know what's coming next...

      no need for false flag, Govt incompetence is not in short supply. Someone , somewhere will f*ck up, and cause a panic.

      Once you reconcile the stochastic nature of human interaction, it becomes much easier to observe patterns in the world..

      Yes, more maths please...

      P.

  9. Reallydo Wannaknow
    Trollface

    NSA -- the only branch of the American government that actually listens.

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