Mike Masnick writes:
Even while NSA defenders are bitching about Senator Ron Wyden hinting strongly about the NSA and the DOJ abusing various interpretations of the law to spy on Americans with the bulk collection of data, it seems that neither Wyden nor Senator Mark Udall are planning to back down. Specifically, Wyden noted (as explained below) that the feds admitted to serious violations of the law — but have done so in classified letters, rather than publicly. He’s hoping to change that.
Read more on TechDirt. Sadly, I missed watching Senators Wyden and Udall on the floor of the Senate a while ago talking about how the government continues to mislead the public. Hopefully there will be an archive of their comments available on C-Span later.
Given the both senators are limited in their ability to reveal what they know, they seem to be coming as close to publicly revealing what would be one huge lie concerning whether the government is engaging in bulk collection of location data:
Udall: bulk phone records collection collects “the who what *****where**** when & how long & stores them in a database.”
— Spencer Ackerman (@attackerman) July 30, 2013
How many times has the government denied obtaining location data?
In the absence of genuine transparency on the part of the government, we need more leaks, not fewer. And the sooner, the better. Michele Bachmann’s and Mike Rogers’ histrionics notwithstanding, Congress should immediately repeal Section 215 or amend it significantly to protect us all from these government surveillance programs.