The NSA Stopped Spying on Americans Last Night… Just Kidding
Claire Bernish
November 30, 2015
(ANTIMEDIA) Sunday marked the end
of the NSA’s highly contentious bulk data collection program, as widely
reported by corporate media outlets. But for all intents and purposes,
as the USA Freedom Act kicked off in its place on Sunday, this termination was a purely hollow, symbolic gesture.
As Edward Snowden revealed two years ago, the National Security Agency implemented a program
to vacuum up the metadata of essentially all domestic communications in
the U.S. by liberally interpreting controversial provisions in the USA
Patriot Act — which federal courts have since found unconstitutional.
Under the transparent guise of fighting terrorism, the NSA argued in
court its justification for casting such a broad net; but after an
earlier reversal, District Court Judge Richard Leon ripped into the program in an epicly caustic ruling in favor of civilians.
But if you think for a second the NSA would actually cease such paranoid spying on the U.S. populace, you might not know much about the Freedom Act.
Whomever claims responsibility for naming these programs clearly does
so with a snide irony only the government could be capable of; whatever
the moniker, it’s usually safe to assume the opposite is true — and the
Freedom Act is no exception.
Sure, massive amounts of data are no longer being collected — by the NSA.
That’s because now, telecommunications corporations have simply taken
over where the government left off. To wit, as Bernard E. Harcourt penned yesterday in The Chronicle of Higher Education:
“The [USA Freedom Act], which authorizes bulk collection of
U.S. citizens’ telephony metadata, provides that telecommunications
companies will hold and maintain the data — and the government will
reimburse them for the service.
“Yes, in what government documents describe as a ‘partnership,’
we taxpayers will pay AT&T to collect and hold on to our data for
when the intelligence services need them. A win-win solution for
everyone — except, of course, the ordinary, tax-paying citizen who wants
a modicum of privacy.”
