Senate Quickly Says 'No Way' To Mitch McConnell's Cynical Ploy To Add Bogus Cybersecurity Bill To NDAA
Earlier this week, we noted that Senator Mitch McConnell, hot off of his huge flop in trying to preserve the NSA's surveillance powers, had promised to insert the dangerous "cybersecurity" bill CISA directly into the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act). As we discussed, while many have long suspected that CISA (and CISPA before it) were surveillance bills draped in "cybersecurity" clothing, the recent Snowden revelations that the NSA is using Section 702 "upstream" collection for "cybersecurity" issues revealed how CISA would massively expand the NSA's ability to warrantlessly wiretap Americans' communications.
Thankfully, like his PATRIOT Act games from a few weeks ago, this latest McConnell move has fallen flat. The Senate rejected the attempt by a 40 to 56 vote. So, for now, it looks like the Senate isn't going to be able to ram CISA through either which is good news.
Still, expect Congress to keep trying. But, each time, it's important to ask some basic questions: what attacks would this bill actually stop (answer: none). And what laws are currently preventing the supposedly necessary "information sharing" from happening today? And, more importantly, why is the NSA getting access to this information and allowed to run backdoor searches on its upstream collections of all internet traffic exiting or entering the US? These all seem like relevant questions and they're all questions that the powers that be are ignoring.
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Thankfully, like his PATRIOT Act games from a few weeks ago, this latest McConnell move has fallen flat. The Senate rejected the attempt by a 40 to 56 vote. So, for now, it looks like the Senate isn't going to be able to ram CISA through either which is good news.
Still, expect Congress to keep trying. But, each time, it's important to ask some basic questions: what attacks would this bill actually stop (answer: none). And what laws are currently preventing the supposedly necessary "information sharing" from happening today? And, more importantly, why is the NSA getting access to this information and allowed to run backdoor searches on its upstream collections of all internet traffic exiting or entering the US? These all seem like relevant questions and they're all questions that the powers that be are ignoring.
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