Congress sends bill remaking NSA phone collection to president, 2 days after letting law lapse
Congress sends bill remaking NSA phone collection to president, 2 days after letting law lapse
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress approved sweeping changes Tuesday to surveillance laws enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, eliminating the National Security Agency’s disputed bulk phone-records collection program and replacing it with a more restrictive measure to keep the records in phone companies’ hands.
Two days after Congress let the phone-records and several other anti-terror programs expire, the Senate’s 67-32 vote sent the legislation to President Barack Obama, who said he would sign it promptly.
“It protects civil liberties and our national security,” Obama said on Twitter. The bill signing could happen late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
The legislation will revive most of the programs the Senate had allowed to lapse in a dizzying collision of presidential politics and national security policy. But the authorization will undergo major changes, the legacy of agency contractor Edward Snowden’s explosive revelations two years ago about domestic spying by the government.
In an unusual shifting of alliances, the legislation passed with the support of Obama and House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, but over the strong opposition of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. McConnell failed to persuade the Senate to extend the current law unchanged, and came up short in a last-ditch effort Tuesday to amend the House version, as nearly a dozen of his own Republicans abandoned him in a series of votes.
AP Exclusive: FBI behind mysterious fleet of aircraft conducting surveillance over US cities
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scores of low-flying planes circling American cities are part of a civilian air force operated by the FBI and obscured behind fictitious companies, The Associated Press has learned.
The AP traced at least 50 aircraft back to the FBI, and identified more than 100 flights in 11 states over a 30-day period since late April, orbiting both major cities and rural areas. At least 115 planes, including 90 Cessna aircraft, were mentioned in a federal budget document from 2009.
For decades, the planes have provided support to FBI surveillance operations on the ground. But now the aircraft are equipped with high-tech cameras, and in rare circumstances, technology capable of tracking thousands of cellphones, raising questions about how these surveillance flights affect Americans’ privacy.
“It’s important that federal law enforcement personnel have the tools they need to find and catch criminals,” said Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “But whenever an operation may also monitor the activities of Americans who are not the intended target, we must make darn sure that safeguards are in place to protect the civil liberties of innocent Americans.”
The FBI says the planes are not equipped or used for bulk collection activities or mass surveillance. The surveillance equipment is used for ongoing investigations, the FBI says, generally without a judge’s approval.
Administration meets health care sign-up goal, but Supreme Court ruling could reverse gains
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 10 million people have signed up for private health insurance this year under President Barack Obama’s law, the administration said Tuesday. That puts the nation finally within reach of coverage for all, but it may not last.
The report from the Department of Health and Human Services comes as dozens of insurers are proposing double-digit premium hikes for next year, raising concerns about future affordability. And the Supreme Court is weighing the legality of subsidized premiums for millions of consumers in more than 30 states. A decision is due around the end of the month.
The 10.2 million sign-ups represent consumers who enrolled in a plan and followed through by paying their first month’s premiums. That number will fluctuate during the year as some people get jobs that offer coverage, and others decide to drop their insurance.
Although it exceeds a target of 9.1 million set last year by HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell, it’s not much of a cushion. “Enrollment has been lower and slower than what most people projected,” said Caroline Pearson of the data analysis firm Avalere Health.
Still, the combination of subsidized private coverage sold through online insurance exchanges in every state, along with Medicaid expansion in most states, has resulted in historic coverage gains.
New allegations of CIA torture released by lawyers for former Maryland man held at Guantanamo
MIAMI (AP) — A former Maryland resident imprisoned at Guantanamo was subjected to mistreatment while in CIA custody far in excess of what has previously been disclosed, including being hung from a wooden beam for three days and kept in total darkness for nearly a year, a legal organization that represents him said Wednesday.
Some details about the treatment of Majid Khan in the clandestine CIA detention center emerged in December when the Senate intelligence committee released a summary of a classified report critical of the agency’s treatment of prisoners suspected of involvement with al-Qaida following the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
But the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York-based organization that represents Khan and others held at Guantanamo, said the mistreatment was far more extensive, and that it can be publicly released now for the first time because the government has determined that some details are no longer considered classified.
Khan, 35, is awaiting sentencing at the U.S. base in Cuba on charges that include conspiracy, murder and attempted murder for aiding al-Qaida. He pleaded guilty before a military commission in a deal that calls for a sentence of between 19 and 25 years, instead of life in prison, in exchange for cooperating in the prosecution of other cases.
Wells Dixon, his attorney, said Pentagon officials should reduce his sentence because of the mistreatment, which they would be permitted to do under the military commission legal system.