Sat Dec 29, 2012 4:2AM
The
US Senate has overwhelmingly voted to renew the government's authority
to monitor overseas phone calls, text messages and emails of foreigners
abroad.
On Friday, the Senate approved a five-year extension by a 73-23 vote and sent the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to President Barack Obama, who is highly likely to sign it.
The spy program started shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York under the George W. Bush administration.
The surveillance act, which allows the CIA and National Security Agency to gather intelligence on foreigners and Americans who are communicating abroad with foreign “targets,” was going to expire by the end of 2012.
The law awards legal immunity to telecommunications providers to continue to collaborate with the country’s intelligence agencies.
According to the law, in order to monitor US nationals, a court order for each interception is required.
After the Senate vote, an Internet rights advocacy organization, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), said in a statement that the act "allows the government to get secret FISA court orders -- orders that do not require probable cause like regular warrants -- for any emails or phone calls going to and coming from overseas. The communications only have to deal with ‘foreign intelligence information,’ a broad term that can mean virtually anything. And one secret FISA order can be issued against groups or categories of people - potentially affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans at once."
"Incredibly, the Senate rejected all the proposed amendments that would have brought a modicum of transparency and oversight to the government's activities," the EFF lamented.
GJH/MA
