House passes anti-surveillance legislation, but only after gutting and declawing it

By NATHANIEL MOTT, at Pando

The United States government’s farcical attempts to curtail the National Security Agency continue today as the House of Representatives passes the USA Freedom Act. The bill, which will now head to the Senate, was originally meant to protect against wanton spying on American citizens, but after heavily editing, the act is largely insignificant. (It’s interesting how the acts with patriotic names end up causing the most problems — or is the passing of the Patriot Act and this new Freedom Act not enough to count as a trend?)

The government has made a game out of its ability to promise one thing and deliver another. It has said that intelligence agencies should be more transparent about their activities, but it is also targeting journalists and whistleblowers with the Espionage Act more than previous administrations. It has said that the country should have an informed debate about the NSA programs that have grabbed headlines for the last year, but it often converses with the public through little more than official reports and careful statements that mean next to nothing. Now it has said that the NSA’s spying should be brought to a stop, but then allowed a toothless bill containing much fewer reforms than it did when it made its way through the House.

Companies like Google and Facebook have pulled their support from the revised bill, which won’t allow them to share as much information about requests for their customers’ data as previous drafts. Meanwhile, groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation have also pulled their support for the revised bill, which has looser restrictions on NSA activities than before. The House has taken a flawed-but-”agreeable” attempt to protect Americans and ruined it. Bound by chains, the USA Freedom Act is now a prisoner of the government’s hollow promises.