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- The GOP is split on the NSA- splits hawks from libertarians
- There is infighting in the GOP over surveillance
- Republicans are at sharp odds over domestic surveillance
Generic Surveillance- GOPThe GOP is split on surveillance – causes political infightingAssociated Press. 2015"Republicans Clash Over NSA Surveillance Powers." NY Times. The New York Times, 18 May 2015. Web. 3 July 2015. PHILADELPHIA — Republicans clashed over the future of government surveillance programs on Monday, highlighting a deep divide among the GOP's 2016 presidential class over whether the National Security Agency should be collecting American citizens' phone records in the name of preventing terrorism. Republican White House hopeful Rand Paul decried the phone data program and other post-9-11 domestic surveillance as unconstitutional at a Monday event outside Philadelphia's Independence Hall. "We will do everything possible — including filibustering the Patriot Act — to stop them," the Kentucky senator charged in front of the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed. Three hundred miles to the north, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered an unapologetic defense of NSA phone records collection as he faced voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire. Christie, who said he used the Patriot Act as a federal prosecutor, argued that government surveillance powers should be strengthened, not weakened. "When it comes to fighting terrorism, our government is not the enemy," Christie declared. "Absolutely no one has a single real example of our intelligence services misusing this program for political or other nefarious purposes." The revelation that the NSA had for years been secretly collecting all records of U.S. landline phone calls was among the most controversial disclosures by Snowden, a former NSA systems administrator who in 2013 leaked thousands of secret documents to journalists. The program collects the number called, along with the date, time and duration of call, but not the content or people's names. It stores the information in an NSA database that a small number of analysts query for matches against the phone numbers of known terrorists abroad, hunting for domestic connections to plots. Intelligence officials call the program useful, but can point to no single terrorist plot uncovered because of it. Monday's clash comes just as Congress debates the future of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the phone records program. The law will expire on June 1 unless Congress acts. The House has passed a bill that would end the NSA's collection and storage of the phone records, but would allow the agency to gather them from the phone companies on a case-by-case basis. Some in the Senate, including Republican leader Mitch McConnell, want to continue the program as is, with the NSA keeping all the records. Christie and another presidential candidate, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., are in McConnell's camp, arguing that it's critical to extend the provision to fight terrorism. So is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose aides addressed the issue head on for the first time Monday. "In light of the growing terrorist threat to the United States, Governor Bush supports extending responsible intelligence and law enforcement authorities_including the NSA metadata program —in order to help keep us safe against the asymmetric terrorist threats facing our country," Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said. During an interview with The Associated Press, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker three times declined to say whether he supported reauthorizing the program. He said it was "important to be able to collect information like that," as long as there were unspecified privacy safeguards. After the interview, a spokesman emailed to say that Walker supported continuing the program as it exists, with the NSA storing American phone records. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, strikes a middle ground, supporting a Senate version of the House bill that preserves the program while ending NSA bulk collection and storage. Paul goes the furthest, arguing that the Patriot Act should expire. That would end the phone records program and also other unrelated counter terrorism provisions, including a provision that makes it easier for the FBI to track "lone wolf" terror suspects. The House bill would transfer too much power to telephone companies, he said. "They have the votes inside the Beltway," he said. "But we have the votes outside the Beltway. And we'll have that fight." Obama supports the House legislation, known as the USA Freedom Act, which is in line with a proposal he made last March. So, too, does Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, who on Twitter recently endorsed the House plan. Overall, however, Clinton has been vague on her position on the surveillance program. The former secretary of state has also been critical of Snowden, whom she says could have acted as a whistleblower without damaging national security. He leaked thousands of top secret NSA documents and fled to Russia to escape prosecution. Christie took aim at Snowden during a full-throated defense of American intelligence gathering. "When Edward Snowden revealed our intelligence secrets to the world in 2013, civil liberties extremists seized that moment to advance their very own narrow agenda," Christie said. "They want you to think that there's a government agent listening in every time you pick up the phone or Skype with your grandkids." He called that notion "exaggerated and ridiculous." Paul, meanwhile, has been less critical of Snowden. He declined Monday to say whether, if elected, he would pardon the former government contractor. But he equated Snowden and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, whom some say misled Congress about NSA surveillance. "It would probably be just and informative to put Clapper and Snowden in the same cell for the same period of time," Paul said. The GOP is split on the NSA- splits hawks from libertariansJager, Elliot. "Ted Cruz, Rand Paul Push NSA Surveillance as GOP Campaign Issue News Max. NewsMax Media, 06 Apr. 2015. Web. 3 July 2015. The controversy surrounding domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) is expected to divide hawks from libertarians in the 2016 race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the National Journal. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, both staking out a libertarian/tea party position, are strong opponents of the NSA vacuuming up phone records of Americans in search of terrorist or espionage threats. Paul would dismantle the NSA; Cruz would reform the agency. Cruz backed the USA Freedom Act sponsored by Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont which — had it passed — would have reformed but not gutted the Patriot Act. Paul, the singular presidential contender who uncompromisingly opposes NSA surveillance, voted against the measure because he wanted to altogether de-authorize the Patriot Act, according to the Journal. Other likely Republican Party hopefuls are either less clear-cut on the issue or supportive of NSA surveillance. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been critical of both the NSA and the Obama administration's handling of the agency, but has offered few specifics. National security, in contrast, informs the positions of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — and they all categorically support the agency's collection of phone metadata, the Journal reported. Latest News Update Get Newsmax TV At Home » Special: Some 70 percent of Republicans have told Pew pollsters that they were losing faith in the NSA's surveillance programs in the wake of revelations by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about the extent of the government's domestic eavesdropping. Still other Republican candidates, among them Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Dr. Ben Carson, have yet to enunciate a detailed position on the NSA. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry appear to fall more in the national security camp while some of them express concerns that the NSA may have gone too far in some instances, the Journal reported. Congress must again take up the metadata collection program of the Patriot Act before June 1. That's when its part of the Patriot Act, Section 215, is due to expire, the Journal reported. There is infighting in the GOP over surveillanceFlores, 2015 Reena. "GOP Infighting over NSA Surveillance Program Renewal." CBS News. CBS Interactive INC, 17 May 2015. Web. 3 July 2015. Just as a key provision in the Patriot Act -- which allows the National Security Agency to collect Americans' telephone data en masse -- faces expiration at the end of the month, the party in control of Congress remains divided about its reauthorization. Will Congress reauthorize the NSA's phone data collection program? At the heart of the debate is the renewal of Section 215, which the National Security Agency has used as a legal justification for their bulk phone data collection program. The provision is set to expire on May 31 unless Congress takes steps to renew it. The NSA's telephone metadata collection program was also recently ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court -- to the ire and bewilderment of some in the Senate, and to the applause of others. "The court has ruled that the bulk collection of all our phone records all of the time is illegal so really it ought to stop," Republican presidential candidate and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday on NBC News. With time running out on the provision, some in the Republican party are launching their own efforts to prevent what they view as a gutting of the Patriot Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, has recently proposed his own renewal of the bill that would last until 2020. "This has been a very important part of our effort to defend the homeland since 9/11," McConnell said Sunday on ABC News. "I don't want us to go dark, in effect, and I'm afraid that the House-passed bill will basically be the end of the program, and we'll not be able to have yet another tool that we need to combat this terrorist threat from overseas." Last week, the House passed an NSA reform bill, setting up the Senate for a similar showdown. But before a version of the administration-backed House legislation -- called the USA Freedom Act -- can be taken up by the Senate, McConnell has filed for a temporary two-month reauthorization for the Patriot Act's sunsetting provisions. The majority leader said that he would rather see "a couple of months extension of the existing program so we can get reassurance that this new bill that passed the House can actually work." But Sen. Paul expressed dismay at his colleague's idea. "I don't want to replace it with another system," Paul said, answering a question about the temporary extension. "I really think that we could get along with a Constitution just fine. We did for over 200 years -- you can catch terrorists." Paul further alluded to the Tsarnaev brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, saying that there was a possibility of preventing the tragedy if the U.S. were "not spending so much time and money collecting the information of innocent Americans." "I want to spend more time on people we have suspicion of and we have probable cause of and less time on innocent Americans," Paul said. "It distracts us from the job of getting terrorists." Paul even took to Twitter last week announcing his plans to end the agency's dragnet program -- even if he has to go it alone. screen-shot-2015-05-17-at-3-26-21-pm.png Twitter.com/RandPaul Paul has also found a supporter in his Democratic colleague from Oregon, Sen. Ron Wyden. Wyden, a vocal critic of NSA surveillance, said last week that he too would participate in a filibuster of the Patriot Act extension. And though Paul has batted at Congressional leadership over privacy issues in the past, his fellow Kentucky senator this time around has dismissed the presidential candidate's rhetoric. "Everybody threatens to filibuster," McConnell added Sunday. "We'll see what happens. But this is the security of the country that we're talking about here. This is no small matter." "Rand Paul and I agree on most things," the Kentucky Republican said. "We don't agree on this." Republicans are at sharp odds over domestic surveillanceClarke, 2015 Lesley. "NSA Surveillance Ruling Splits GOP Presidential Hopefuls." McClatchy DC. McClatchy DC, 07 May 2015. Web. 3 July 2015. A court decision Thursday that declared the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of telephone metadata to be illegal revealed a sharp split among several Republican presidential hopefuls over the scope of the surveillance. Minutes after the court’s announcement, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has challenged the constitutionality of the program, called the ruling a “monumental decision for all lovers of liberty” and urged the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down the spying program. He also called on Congress to repeal the USA Patriot Act provision that permits the collection and said he’d “continue to fight to prevent the Washington machine from illegally seizing any American’s personal communication.” That stance puts him at sharp odds with Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, one of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination next year, who took to the Senate floor, along with Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., to defend the program and accuse critics of “raising hysteria.” Rubio charged that a perception has been created, “including by political figures that serve in this chamber, that the United States government is listening to your phone calls or going through your bills as a matter of course. That is absolutely, categorically false.” “The next time that any politician, senator, congressman, talking head, whatever it may be, stands up and says that the U.S. government is listening to your phone calls or going through your phone records, they’re lying,” Rubio said. On the Democratic side, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent running for the Democratic Party’s presidential nod, tweeted, “It’s Time To End Orwellian Surveillance of Every American.” On his Senate website, he said: “Clearly we must do everything we can to protect our country from the serious potential of another terrorist attack, but we can and must do so in a way that also protects the constitutional rights of the American people and maintains our free society.” Democratic hopeful Hillary Clinton had not commented on the ruling by early evening, but on Twitter she pledged her support for the USA Freedom Act, a possible replacement for the Patriot Act but without the provision allowing the bulk collection of data. “Congress should move ahead now with the USA Freedom Act – a good step forward in ongoing efforts to protect our security & civil liberties,” Clinton tweeted. Likely Republican contender and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush last month said President Barack Obama’s support for using big metadata was the “best part” of the administration. “The first obligation of our national government is to keep us safe,” Bush said in a radio interview on “The Michael Medved Show.” “And the technology that now can be applied to make that so, while protecting civil liberties, are there and (Obama’s) not abandoned them even though there was some indication that he might.” The ruling from the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes as the Senate debates renewing the USA Patriot Act, which includes Section 215, which allows the government to bulk-collect metadata of phone records. The White House said Obama has privacy concerns about the bulk collection and is working with Congress on the USA Freedom Act to curb it. That put the administration in the same camp as another Republican 2016 hopeful, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who called for passage of the act. Cruz said the ruling “ends the NSA’s unfettered data collection program once and for all, while at the same time preserving the government’s ability to obtain information to track down terrorists when it has sufficient justification and support for doing so.” Rubio has charged the USA Freedom Act could undercut the ability to track terrorists. Directory: wp-content -> uploads -> 2014 2014 -> For want of a nail 2014 -> Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014 2014 -> Ihbb asian Championships 2014 middle school bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> Ihbb european Championships 2014 Bowl Round 4 First Quarter 2014 -> International History Bee and Bowl 2013-14 Asian Division Question Set Bowl Round Six 2014 -> United states patent and trademark office 2014 -> Coffs harbour eisteddfod vocal syllabus 2014 -> Listen News Programs Schedule pledge now 2014 -> Slow club announce third album complete surrender Download 292.55 Kb. Share with your friends:
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