The conservative Democratic author of the USA Patriot Act is preparing to unveil new bipartisan legislation that would dramatically limit the surveillance powers of intelligence agencies.
Jim Sensenbrenner, who, along with then US President George W Bush, created the Patriot Act to give more power to US intelligence agencies after the September 11 terrorist attacks, said that the NSA (and others) had abused their powers by collecting phone conversations from all Americans and claimed that it was time to "put their metadata program out of business".
His upcoming bill in the House of Representatives is expected to be combined with a similar proposal from Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat. They aim to consolidate existing congressional efforts and force reforms to the way the National Security Agency operates in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations.
Statements about impressions? A prefabricated plan by a government that considers it its duty to monitor the entire planet? A genuine attempt to limit the actions of the NSA? No one knows, no one can say for sure. Until the next Edward Snowden.
Source: secnews.gr
