NSA reform facing hard sell following Paris terror attacks

[Valin]

The Hill:

Julian Hattem

01/11/15

 

The push to reform the National Security Agency isn’t getting any easier.

After a reform bill was narrowly blocked on the Senate floor late last year, civil libertarians hoped that an upcoming deadline to reauthorize some of the spy agency’s controversial powers would give them another opportunity to force changes.

 

But the attacks in Paris last week, where gunmen killed 12 at a satirical newspaper and 4 at a kosher market, is making that job harder, and strengthening the resolve of the NSA's backers.

“I hope the effect of that is that people realize ... the pendulum has swung way too far after [leaker Edward Snowden],” Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told reporters on Thursday.

 

“We still are interested in tying to end the bulk collection of data,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told reporters last week. Paul, a noted libertarian, voted against the bill last year, on the grounds that it did not go far enough to rein in the NSA.....

 

“I’m in favor of having an NSA. I’m in favor of having an agency that helps to protect us by looking at signals and information, trying to put that together,” he said.

However, he added,* “I think the American people are not in favor of having all their phone data collected without a warrant.”

 

(Snip)

 

 

* I totally agree! The problem is that is not what the NSA is doing.