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1. Revise FISA and the PATRIOT Act

Civil libertarians would love nothing more than a full re-examination of the two laws that form the legal basis for the vast surveillance and snooping operation being conducted by the NSA. That includes revisions to both the body of the law and the sunset date.

Congress should make it clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of a person in the U.S. is prohibited and violations can be reviewed before a public court, they wrote in a letter to members of Congress.

The PATRIOT Act — adopted shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks — was last renewed in 2011. The most controversial provision, the so-called business record provision, is the legal basis for the NSA’s vast collection of phone records.

Congress also tinkered with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a 1978 law that permits federal surveillance — in the post Sept. 11 era, giving the government a legal framework for secret surveillance.

Tech and privacy groups unveiled a new coalition on Tuesday that has registered the website stopwatching.us, and aims to get grass-roots supporters to put pressure on Congress to repeal the controversial sections of the PATRIOT Act and FISA and enact more stringent privacy protections.

“What we’re seeing right now is this huge outcry from the public that Washington is responding to,” said Rainey Reitman, activism director for EFF. “What we would like to ensure is that the legislation that comes out of this will solve the entire problem instead of fixing it on the fringe.”

Outlook: Possible. When The New York Times revealed in 2005 that the Bush administration was wiretapping Americans without a warrant, Congress eventually took up the issue.

But such oversight might backfire. While Congress did end up looking critically at the warrantless wiretapping program, it ended up actually legalizing the bulk of the program and placing it under the control of a secret federal court.

“To some degree it was a ‘be careful what you wish for,’” Rosenzweig said. In 2008, “Congress actually looked at the program and said we actually need this.”

2. Reform the FISA court

Proceedings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — the secret court that oversees the wiretapping law — are closed; only government lawyers appear before the court and all legal documents are classified. Civil libertarians and transparency advocates are hoping to change that.

A bipartisan group of eight senators Tuesday introduced a bill that would unseal some of the FISA court’s classified opinions that authorized requests for surveillance.

“This revelation is the latest in a growing body of revelations that show how the federal government’s excessive secrecy leads to a culture of unaccountability that permits such abuses of authority to occur,” Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org said in a statement.

Outlook: Unclear. The court’s proceedings were designed to be secret, but there seems to be extensive congressional interest in the topic. “You can’t have a secret court that’s transparent,” quipped Rosenzweig.

Supporters of the court say revealing the court’s proceedings would essentially reveal to terrorism suspects that the government is monitoring them.

This article tagged under: Privacy

NSA

ACLU<\|endoftext\|>MALAPPURAM: Malappuram municipality will turn Wi-Fi enabled on Friday as industries minister P K Kunhalikkutty will inaugurate the ambitious Wi-Fi project.The municipality, which is going to be the first in the country which provides free Wi-Fi to its residents, is planning to provide free internet facility to its 68,000 residents through Wi-Fi connectivity.High speed internet connectivity with an average speed of 200 mbps would be available in uphill and down hill regions of the town in the initial phase and later the facility would be extended to all parts of municipality.The registration for the users, for accessing free Wi-Fi has already started and the username and password would be distributed to first 5,000 applicants on Friday. College students who are non-residents of Malappuram municipality can also access the connectivity and their applications are also under the consideration of municipality.The municipality is also launching an electronic medical record (EMR) system and e-tutor programme as part of the project.EMR is a centralized online medical record of each resident of the municipality that can be accessible from anywhere. Urban affairs minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali will inaugurate the EMR system, at the same function.Through its free Wi-Fi cover, the municipality is also planning to provide free education services including video lessons and unlimited practice questions to students. The round the clock e-tutor service would be launched by E Ahammed MP at the function.Rs 1.45 crore is the total cost of the Wi-Fi project and it was implemented with the financial support of state IT department and technical support of Railtel Corporation of India.<\|endoftext\|>Alan Fram and Erica Werner, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The resounding Senate crash of the seven-year Republican drive to scrap the Obama health care law has led to finger-pointing but also has left the party with wounded leaders and no evident way ahead on an issue that won't go away.

In an astonishing cliff-hanger, the GOP-run Senate voted 51-49 on Friday to reject Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's last ditch attempt to sustain their drive to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care overhaul with a starkly trimmed-down bill.

The vote, which concluded shortly before 2 a.m. EDT, was a blistering defeat for President Donald Trump and McConnell, R-Ky.

"They should have approved health care last night," Trump said Friday during a speech in Brentwood, New York. "But you can't have everything," he added, seemingly shrugging off one of his biggest legislative setbacks.

Trump reiterated his threat to "let Obamacare implode," an outcome he could hasten by steps such as halting federal payments to help insurers reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower-earning consumers.

Senate Democrats were joined in opposition by three Republicans -- Maine's Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Arizona's John McCain. The 80-year-old McCain, just diagnosed with brain cancer, had returned to the Capitol three days earlier to provide a vote that temporarily kept the measure alive, only to deliver the coup de grace Friday.

"Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don't go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time," Trump tweeted Saturday. He said the "Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party." But on the crucial vote, a simple majority of 51 votes, including a tie-breaker by Vice-President Mike Pence, was all that was needed.

"Hello, he only needed 51 in the health care bill and couldn't do it," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helpfully reminded reporters.

Earlier in the week, Republican defections sank GOP efforts to scrap the 2010 law. One would have erased Obama's statute and replaced it with a more constricted government health care role, and the other would have annulled the law and given Congress two years to replace it.

The measure that fell Friday was narrower and included a repeal of Obama's unpopular tax penalties on people who don't buy policies and on employers who don't offer coverage to workers. McConnell designed it as a legislative vehicle the Senate could approve and begin talks with the House on a compromise, final bill.

But the week's setbacks highlighted how, despite years of trying, GOP leaders haven't resolved internal battles between conservatives seeking to erase Obama's law and moderates leery of tossing millions of voters off of coverage.

"It's time to move on," McConnell said after the defeat.

Friday morning, House leaders turned to singer Gordon Lightfoot to point fingers. They opened a House GOP meeting by playing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," a ballad about the 1975 sinking of a freighter in Lake Superior. Lawmakers said leaders assured them it was meant as a reference to the Senate's flop.

The House approved its health care measure in May, after its own tribulations.

In a statement, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pointedly said "the House delivered a bill."

He added, "I encourage the Senate to continue working toward a real solution that keeps our promise."

Conservative Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., running for a Senate seat, faulted McConnell for not crafting a plan that could pass. He said if McConnell abandons the health care drive, "he should resign from leadership."

One moderate Republican said Trump shared responsibility.

"One of the failures was the president never laid out a plan or his core principles and never sold them to the American people," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. "Outsourced the whole issue to Congress."

In statements Friday, McCain said the Senate bill didn't lower costs or improve care and called the chamber's inability to craft wide-ranging legislation "inexcusable." He said Democrats and Republicans should write a bill together and "stop the political gamesmanship."

Lawmakers spoke of two possible but difficult routes forward.

In one, balking GOP senators could be won over by new proposals from leaders or cave under pressure from angry constituents demanding they fulfil the party's pledge to tear down Obama's law. But both of those dynamics have been in play all year without producing results.

In the other, there would be a limited bipartisan effort to address the insurance market's short-term concerns. That would provide money to insurers to help them subsidize some customers and prevent companies from driving up premiums or abandoning regions.

Schumer said he hoped the two parties could "work together to make the system better" by stabilizing marketplaces.

But many conservatives oppose such payments and consider them insurance industry bailouts, raising questions about whether Congress could approve such a package.

McConnell said it was time for Democrats "to tell us what they have in mind." But saying he was backed by most Republicans, he added, "Bailing out insurance companies, with no thought of any kind of reform, is not something I want to be part of."

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report<\|endoftext\|>ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Trump made a tough call last week. European diplomats and an “echo chamber” in the mainstream media were insisting he “recertify” the nuclear weapons deal his predecessor concluded with Iran’s rulers in 2015.

He didn’t want to. He has said repeatedly that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) fails to do what it was meant to do: stop — not just delay — the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Instead and perversely, the deal legitimizes, enriches and emboldens a regime openly dedicated to the defeat of America and its allies. How could he now tell Congress that the JCPOA is “vital to the national security interests of the United States”?

So why not just scuttle the deal as Iran hawks have been urging? A number of reasons, but prominent among them: Iran’s rulers would have cast themselves as victims. “We’ve kept our part of the bargain and this is how we’re treated by America’s rogue president!” they’d have cried. Other nations committed to the JCPOA would have taken their side. The Atlantic alliance would have been more divided — a clear win for Iran.

1. Revise FISA and the PATRIOT Act

Civil libertarians would love nothing more than a full re-examination of the two laws that form the legal basis for the vast surveillance and snooping operation being conducted by the NSA. That includes revisions to both the body of the law and the sunset date.

Congress should make it clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity and phone records of a person in the U.S. is prohibited and violations can be reviewed before a public court, they wrote in a letter to members of Congress.

The PATRIOT Act — adopted shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks — was last renewed in 2011. The most controversial provision, the so-called business record provision, is the legal basis for the NSA’s vast collection of phone records.

Congress also tinkered with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act — a 1978 law that permits federal surveillance — in the post Sept. 11 era, giving the government a legal framework for secret surveillance.

Tech and privacy groups unveiled a new coalition on Tuesday that has registered the website stopwatching.us, and aims to get grass-roots supporters to put pressure on Congress to repeal the controversial sections of the PATRIOT Act and FISA and enact more stringent privacy protections.

“What we’re seeing right now is this huge outcry from the public that Washington is responding to,” said Rainey Reitman, activism director for EFF. “What we would like to ensure is that the legislation that comes out of this will solve the entire problem instead of fixing it on the fringe.”

Outlook: Possible. When The New York Times revealed in 2005 that the Bush administration was wiretapping Americans without a warrant, Congress eventually took up the issue.

But such oversight might backfire. While Congress did end up looking critically at the warrantless wiretapping program, it ended up actually legalizing the bulk of the program and placing it under the control of a secret federal court.

“To some degree it was a ‘be careful what you wish for,’” Rosenzweig said. In 2008, “Congress actually looked at the program and said we actually need this.”

2. Reform the FISA court

Proceedings of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — the secret court that oversees the wiretapping law — are closed; only government lawyers appear before the court and all legal documents are classified. Civil libertarians and transparency advocates are hoping to change that.

A bipartisan group of eight senators Tuesday introduced a bill that would unseal some of the FISA court’s classified opinions that authorized requests for surveillance.

“This revelation is the latest in a growing body of revelations that show how the federal government’s excessive secrecy leads to a culture of unaccountability that permits such abuses of authority to occur,” Patrice McDermott, executive director of OpenTheGovernment.org said in a statement.

Outlook: Unclear. The court’s proceedings were designed to be secret, but there seems to be extensive congressional interest in the topic. “You can’t have a secret court that’s transparent,” quipped Rosenzweig.

Supporters of the court say revealing the court’s proceedings would essentially reveal to terrorism suspects that the government is monitoring them.

This article tagged under: Privacy

NSA

ACLU<|endoftext|>MALAPPURAM: Malappuram municipality will turn Wi-Fi enabled on Friday as industries minister P K Kunhalikkutty will inaugurate the ambitious Wi-Fi project.The municipality, which is going to be the first in the country which provides free Wi-Fi to its residents, is planning to provide free internet facility to its 68,000 residents through Wi-Fi connectivity.High speed internet connectivity with an average speed of 200 mbps would be available in uphill and down hill regions of the town in the initial phase and later the facility would be extended to all parts of municipality.The registration for the users, for accessing free Wi-Fi has already started and the username and password would be distributed to first 5,000 applicants on Friday. College students who are non-residents of Malappuram municipality can also access the connectivity and their applications are also under the consideration of municipality.The municipality is also launching an electronic medical record (EMR) system and e-tutor programme as part of the project.EMR is a centralized online medical record of each resident of the municipality that can be accessible from anywhere. Urban affairs minister Manjalamkuzhi Ali will inaugurate the EMR system, at the same function.Through its free Wi-Fi cover, the municipality is also planning to provide free education services including video lessons and unlimited practice questions to students. The round the clock e-tutor service would be launched by E Ahammed MP at the function.Rs 1.45 crore is the total cost of the Wi-Fi project and it was implemented with the financial support of state IT department and technical support of Railtel Corporation of India.<|endoftext|>Alan Fram and Erica Werner, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON -- The resounding Senate crash of the seven-year Republican drive to scrap the Obama health care law has led to finger-pointing but also has left the party with wounded leaders and no evident way ahead on an issue that won't go away.

In an astonishing cliff-hanger, the GOP-run Senate voted 51-49 on Friday to reject Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's last ditch attempt to sustain their drive to dismantle President Barack Obama's health care overhaul with a starkly trimmed-down bill.

The vote, which concluded shortly before 2 a.m. EDT, was a blistering defeat for President Donald Trump and McConnell, R-Ky.

"They should have approved health care last night," Trump said Friday during a speech in Brentwood, New York. "But you can't have everything," he added, seemingly shrugging off one of his biggest legislative setbacks.

Trump reiterated his threat to "let Obamacare implode," an outcome he could hasten by steps such as halting federal payments to help insurers reduce out-of-pocket costs for lower-earning consumers.

Senate Democrats were joined in opposition by three Republicans -- Maine's Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Arizona's John McCain. The 80-year-old McCain, just diagnosed with brain cancer, had returned to the Capitol three days earlier to provide a vote that temporarily kept the measure alive, only to deliver the coup de grace Friday.

"Republicans in the Senate will NEVER win if they don't go to a 51 vote majority NOW. They look like fools and are just wasting time," Trump tweeted Saturday. He said the "Republican Senate must get rid of 60 vote NOW! It is killing the R Party." But on the crucial vote, a simple majority of 51 votes, including a tie-breaker by Vice-President Mike Pence, was all that was needed.

"Hello, he only needed 51 in the health care bill and couldn't do it," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., helpfully reminded reporters.

Earlier in the week, Republican defections sank GOP efforts to scrap the 2010 law. One would have erased Obama's statute and replaced it with a more constricted government health care role, and the other would have annulled the law and given Congress two years to replace it.

The measure that fell Friday was narrower and included a repeal of Obama's unpopular tax penalties on people who don't buy policies and on employers who don't offer coverage to workers. McConnell designed it as a legislative vehicle the Senate could approve and begin talks with the House on a compromise, final bill.

But the week's setbacks highlighted how, despite years of trying, GOP leaders haven't resolved internal battles between conservatives seeking to erase Obama's law and moderates leery of tossing millions of voters off of coverage.

"It's time to move on," McConnell said after the defeat.

Friday morning, House leaders turned to singer Gordon Lightfoot to point fingers. They opened a House GOP meeting by playing "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," a ballad about the 1975 sinking of a freighter in Lake Superior. Lawmakers said leaders assured them it was meant as a reference to the Senate's flop.

The House approved its health care measure in May, after its own tribulations.

In a statement, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., pointedly said "the House delivered a bill."

He added, "I encourage the Senate to continue working toward a real solution that keeps our promise."

Conservative Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., running for a Senate seat, faulted McConnell for not crafting a plan that could pass. He said if McConnell abandons the health care drive, "he should resign from leadership."

One moderate Republican said Trump shared responsibility.

"One of the failures was the president never laid out a plan or his core principles and never sold them to the American people," said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. "Outsourced the whole issue to Congress."

In statements Friday, McCain said the Senate bill didn't lower costs or improve care and called the chamber's inability to craft wide-ranging legislation "inexcusable." He said Democrats and Republicans should write a bill together and "stop the political gamesmanship."

Lawmakers spoke of two possible but difficult routes forward.

In one, balking GOP senators could be won over by new proposals from leaders or cave under pressure from angry constituents demanding they fulfil the party's pledge to tear down Obama's law. But both of those dynamics have been in play all year without producing results.

In the other, there would be a limited bipartisan effort to address the insurance market's short-term concerns. That would provide money to insurers to help them subsidize some customers and prevent companies from driving up premiums or abandoning regions.

Schumer said he hoped the two parties could "work together to make the system better" by stabilizing marketplaces.

But many conservatives oppose such payments and consider them insurance industry bailouts, raising questions about whether Congress could approve such a package.

McConnell said it was time for Democrats "to tell us what they have in mind." But saying he was backed by most Republicans, he added, "Bailing out insurance companies, with no thought of any kind of reform, is not something I want to be part of."

Associated Press writers Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Stephen Ohlemacher contributed to this report<|endoftext|>ANALYSIS/OPINION:

President Trump made a tough call last week. European diplomats and an “echo chamber” in the mainstream media were insisting he “recertify” the nuclear weapons deal his predecessor concluded with Iran’s rulers in 2015.

He didn’t want to. He has said repeatedly that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) fails to do what it was meant to do: stop — not just delay — the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Instead and perversely, the deal legitimizes, enriches and emboldens a regime openly dedicated to the defeat of America and its allies. How could he now tell Congress that the JCPOA is “vital to the national security interests of the United States”?

So why not just scuttle the deal as Iran hawks have been urging? A number of reasons, but prominent among them: Iran’s rulers would have cast themselves as victims. “We’ve kept our part of the bargain and this is how we’re treated by America’s rogue president!” they’d have cried. Other nations committed to the JCPOA would have taken their side. The Atlantic alliance would have been more divided — a clear win for Iran.