This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

CISA Is Now The Law: How Congress Quietly Passed The Second Patriot Act

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Update: CISA is now the law: OBAMA SIGNS SPENDING, TAX BILL THAT REPEALS OIL EXPORT BAN

* * *

Back in 2014, civil liberties and privacy advocates were up in arms when the government tried to quietly push through the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, or CISA, a law which would allow federal agencies - including the NSA - to share cybersecurity, and really any information with private corporations "notwithstanding any other provision of law." The most vocal complaint involved CISA’s information-sharing channel, which was ostensibly created for responding quickly to hacks and breaches, and which provided a loophole in privacy laws that enabled intelligence and law enforcement surveillance without a warrant.

Ironically, in its earlier version, CISA had drawn the opposition of tech firms including Apple, Twitter, Reddit, as well as the Business Software Alliance, the Computer and Communications Industry Association and many others including countless politicians and, most amusingly, the White House itself.

In April, a coalition of 55 civil liberties groups and security experts signed onto an open letter opposing it. In July, the Department of Homeland Security itself warned that the bill could overwhelm the agency with data of “dubious value” at the same time as it “sweep[s] away privacy protections.” Most notably, the biggest aggregator of online private content, Facebook, vehemently opposed the legislation however a month ago it was "surprisingly" revealed that Zuckerberg had been quietly on the side of the NSA all along as we reported in "Facebook Caught Secretly Lobbying For Privacy-Destroying "Cyber-Security" Bill." 

Even Snowden chimed in:

Following the blitz response, the push to pass CISA was tabled following a White House threat to veto similar legislation. Then, quietly, CISA reemerged after the same White House mysteriously flip-flopped, expressed its support for precisely the same bill in August.

And then the masks fell off, when it became obvious that not only are corporations eager to pass CISA despite their previous outcry, but that they have both the White House and Congress in their pocket.

As Wired reminds us, when the Senate passed the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act by a vote of 74 to 21 in October, privacy advocates were again "aghast" that the key portions of the law were left intact which they said make it more amenable to surveillance than actual security, claiming that Congress has quietly stripped out "even more of its remaining privacy protections."

"They took a bad bill, and they made it worse," says Robyn Greene, policy counsel for the Open Technology Institute.

But while Congress was preparing a second assault on privacy, it needed a Trojan Horse with which to enact the proposed legislation into law without the public having the ability to reject it.

It found just that by attaching it to the Omnibus $1.1 trillion Spending Bill, which passed the House early this morning, passed the Senate moments ago and will be signed into law by the president in the coming hours. 

This is how it happened, again courtesy of Wired:

In a late-night session of Congress, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced a new version of the “omnibus” bill, a massive piece of legislation that deals with much of the federal government’s funding. It now includes a version of CISA as well. Lumping CISA in with the omnibus bill further reduces any chance for debate over its surveillance-friendly provisions, or a White House veto. And the latest version actually chips away even further at the remaining personal information protections that privacy advocates had fought for in the version of the bill that passed the Senate.

It gets: it appears that while CISA was on hiatus, US lawmakers - working under the direction of corporations adnt the NSA - were seeking to weaponize the revised legislation, and as Wired says, the latest version of the bill appended to the omnibus legislation seems to exacerbate the problem of personal information protections.

It creates the ability for the president to set up “portals” for agencies like the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, so that companies hand information directly to law enforcement and intelligence agencies instead of to the Department of Homeland Security. And it also changes when information shared for cybersecurity reasons can be used for law enforcement investigations. The earlier bill had only allowed that backchannel use of the data for law enforcement in cases of “imminent threats,” while the new bill requires just a “specific threat,” potentially allowing the search of the data for any specific terms regardless of timeliness.

Some, like Senator Ron Wyden, spoke out out against the changes to the bill in a press statement, writing they’d worsened a bill he already opposed as a surveillance bill in the guise of cybersecurity protections.

Senator Richard Burr, who had introduced the earlier version of bill, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Americans deserve policies that protect both their security and their liberty," he wrote. "This bill fails on both counts."

Why was the CISA included in the omnibus package, which just passed both the House and the Senate? Because any "nay" votes  - or an Obama - would also threaten the entire budget of the federal government. In other words, it was a question of either Americans keeping their privacy or halting the funding of the US government, in effect bankrupting the nation.

And best of all, the rushed bill means there will be no debate.

The bottom line as OTI's Robyn Green said, "They’ve got this bill that’s kicked around for years and had been too controversial to pass, so they’ve seen an opportunity to push it through without debate. And they’re taking that opportunity."

The punchline: "They’re kind of pulling a Patriot Act."

And when Obama signs the $1.1 trillion Spending Bill in a few hours, as he will, it will be official: the second Patriot Act will be the law, and with it what little online privacy US citizens may enjoy, will be gone.

 

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Fri, 12/18/2015 - 23:21 | 6941874 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

You twat.  Are you a WOMAN?

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 08:15 | 6942488 InsanityIsWinning
InsanityIsWinning's picture

Just goes to show ya, there's really not much different between political parties. There's talk, that's what reaches the superficial electorate, in the end, it's bigger government, more debt and big business lobbyist that win.

Fri, 12/18/2015 - 22:31 | 6941745 YouThePeople
YouThePeople's picture

....BOO!

Fri, 12/18/2015 - 23:20 | 6941870 bunnyswanson
bunnyswanson's picture

Bankers, Looting and stealing their whole goddam life and they want us to SHUT UP AND TAKE IT?  Oh sure!~  Bankers, the thieves in "big houses"  44 castles.  BLOW UP THE FUCKING CASTLES YOU FREAKS AND FAGS IN THE MILITARY.

Fri, 12/18/2015 - 23:47 | 6941943 Joe Sixpack
Joe Sixpack's picture

Time to start using Tor.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 11:17 | 6942580 Sam.Spade
Sam.Spade's picture

Tor is a good start, but not nearly enough.

You take your cell phone everywhere with you?  You buy everything with VISA rather than cash?  You have all your net worth in dollar assets held by some institution?  You use a Microsoft or Apple operating system?  Use gmail and google?  Well, guess what.  Tor won't help you with any of these quislings.

Making the transition to privacy systems isn't easy.  It takes time, so start now.  The above paragaraph gives you a good list to begin.  For more details, start with privacytools.io and Ubuntu.com.

Or read Thieves Emporium.  It will give you a graphic depiction of why privacy is important and the appendix in back is a great list to start with.

But start NOW.  Your children's future depends on it.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 01:37 | 6942072 Chris Dakota
Chris Dakota's picture

Why do they want all these refugees?

The endgame is total tyranny. And they are so close, with the coming false flags and flood of refugees they will blame it on, the public will beg for it.

Great evil is afoot...

Pluto mid Capricorn, but in the end it is this scenario that will jail them, everything will turn 180*

It is a great time to be alive to witness all accounts settled.

Pluto was in Capricorn when the Declaration of Independace was signed, and they won when Pluto was in the first few degrees Aquarius.

A government for and by the people based in Liberty,  the old government was burned to the ground.

According to Benjamin Franklin and others in the thick of the action – a little-known factor was actually the main reason for the revolution.

To give some background on the issue, when Benjamin Franklin went to London in 1764, this is what he observed:

When he arrived, he was surprised to find rampant unemployment and poverty among the British working classes… Franklin was then asked how the American colonies managed to collect enough money to support their poor houses. He reportedly replied:

“We have no poor houses in the Colonies; and if we had some, there would be nobody to put in them, since there is, in the Colonies, not a single unemployed person, neither beggars nor tramps.”

In 1764, the Bank of England used its influence on Parliament to get a Currency Act passed that made it illegal for any of the colonies to print their own money. The colonists were forced to pay all future taxes to Britain in silver or gold. Anyone lacking in those precious metals had to borrow them at interest from the banks.

Only a year later, Franklin said, the streets of the colonies were filled with unemployed beggars, just as they were in England. The money supply had suddenly been reduced by half, leaving insufficient funds to pay for the goods and services these workers could have provided. He maintained that it was “the poverty caused by the bad influence of the English bankers on the Parliament which has caused in the colonies hatred of the English and . . . the Revolutionary War.” This, he said, was the real reason for the Revolution: “the colonies would gladly have borne the little tax on tea and other matters had it not been that England took away from the colonies their money, which created unemployment and dissatisfaction.”

 Franklin also reportedly said:

The refusal of King George III to allow the colonies to operate an honest money system, which freed the ordinary man from the clutches of money manipulators was probably the prime cause of the Revolution.

Alexander Hamilton echoed similar statements.

And that is why I use the Scorpio rising US chart because Taurus is My Money and in Scorpio it is Our Money.

Hence America being the stock market  country, collective ownership/wealth.  

Franklin was an astrologer (publisher of Poor Richard’s Almanak) and he delayed the signing of the declaration for 2 days to put the Moon (People) in rebellious and liberty minded Aquarius.

From the time Ben could first write, he was drawing maps of the sky when the planets and stars were visible and he quickly realized that when Jupiter (the brightest planet in the sky) and the Sun made a Planetary Eclipse, the planets were giving us folks on Earth a sign that something remarkably good was happening.  This is called a Sun-Jupiter Planetary Eclipse.

There was a Sun-Jupiter Planetary Eclipse when America’s Founders signed the Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776), and also when the US Constitution became effective (June 21, 1788) on the day New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the US Constitution.

Benjamin Franklin also paid a lot of attention to another kind of eclipse – STAR ECLIPSES.

A Star Eclipse is formed when a planet is on top of a star.  This was the most basic principle of ancient astrologers. A Star Eclipse is significant and has power but is not nearly as powerful as a Planetary Eclipse – unless the Star Eclipse occurs at the same time as a Planetary Eclipse.

That is exactly what happened on July 4, 1776.

Mars was eclipsing Alhecke, Venus eclipsed Tejat Posterior and Jupiter was top of Nepsula. 

Benjamin Franklin really knew what he was doing.

We owe so much to Benjamin Franklin, he demonstrated it by giving the lighting rod to the world patent free.

Franklin had Pluto Leo like the baby boomers, those who fought the revolutionary war had Pluto Scorpio as do the children of the boomers do today. All is in place. And when you know this the news is like a cartoon just playing out the archetypes.

 

 

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 09:32 | 6942597 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Nice comment .... did BF really write that humorous essay "Fart Proudly" ?

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 10:29 | 6942699 SirBarksAlot
SirBarksAlot's picture

Thanks for that interesting perspective.  You are really knowledgeable. 

What if you put Taurus as the rising sign for the people's money and Scorpio as the banker's money?

 

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 16:24 | 6942842 Chris Dakota
Chris Dakota's picture

Taurus is all about survival. Life begins in Aries and Taurus aims to make it through the winter by preparation, hoarding.

Taurus is not about sharing, Scorpio is where we pair with another or many to share resources.

Taurus rising would not be giving foreign aid to other nations. It would show pics of vaults of gold. lol

Scorpio is also other peoples money, so being a banking nation does fit.

Scorpio is the warrior, Scorp does not show its hand, much goes on behind the scenes.

Contrary to popular belief it is the 8th house (Scorpio) that indicates our intimate partners, not the 7th.

The 7th house (Libra) is all others, not the one we share our lives with.

Look at your own 8th, it will show your partners and the sign ruling the 8th will also describe them and will be strong in your partners chart.

Example: Virgo rising has Aries on the 8th, so look to Mars. My Mars is in Capricorn, my ex was a Capricorn with his Mars conjunct my Sun in Taurus. My current has Mars in Scorpio where Mars is exaulted it is conjunct my Saturn in Scorpio and Saturn rules my Mars sign Capricorn. So my partners are Mars and mine in Capricorn.

Look at your own chart, it will fit like a glove. If you know your rising sign post it and I will give you a little run down.

You can find your chart here if you have the time it will show rising

http://www.astro.com/cgi/ade.cgi?ract=xx687474703a2f2f7777772e617374726f...

Thanks for the kind words, so many people have astrophobia :)

Astrology is the words of God and my theory is that is why religion hides it and forbids it, they want you coming to them.

Astrology doesn't lie, it can't.

The Vatican has the worlds largest and most important astrological library.

Would love to get accidentally locked in overnight.

The US Stock Exchange has Sun, Venus, Mercury in Taurus

The Federal Reserve was created with Sun at 0.1 Capricorn which is the Aries point so this was chosen by the owners of the FED to rule over the nation and be the ultimate authority, I would say Pluto conjunct FED Sun bankrupt it when Pluto entered Capricorn the day Obama took office in 2009. Pretty interesting to say the least.

Obama is their ultimate puppet for sure.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 01:26 | 6942147 Jack Oliver
Jack Oliver's picture

No war on the immediate horizon is the big killer -A big percentage of the US economy relies on war - If you had invested in a company like 'Lockheed Martin' in 2001 you would have enjoyed around 13% return per annum - it's absolutely FUCKING disgusting !

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 01:55 | 6942196 Odegaard Falls
Odegaard Falls's picture

Just in case you've all forgot this is a ponzi scheme, there is no ceiling, future debt provides for the present, the future well, that's their problem, notice the correct use of there you fakkin' muppets'.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 01:57 | 6942205 Odegaard Falls
Odegaard Falls's picture

I don't comment much, but when i do, go fak ur'self

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 02:15 | 6942223 Sir John Bagot Glubb
Sir John Bagot Glubb's picture

So does the passage of this bill mean ZH is obligated to turn over each of our email addresses to the FBI and/or the NSA without a warrant and without our knowing about it?  Sounds like it.  You can be sure that Homeland Security would love to know who some of us are, particularly those of us who criticize Obama and the federal government on this website.  We are entering chaotic times of the French Revolution.  It is going to get weird.  The government will be printing money like crazy with one hand to prevent civil unrest and stealing it from us with the other hand in high taxes and forfeitures, likely criminalizing as much as possible and as far as the eye can see, all to maintain control.  

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 10:14 | 6942665 SirBarksAlot
SirBarksAlot's picture

Is this about reading your email, or analyzing your assets?

Just askin'.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 05:38 | 6942360 atthelake
atthelake's picture

Gerald Celente is right. We won't do anything about it until we have nothing left to lose.

Today, most of us have too much to lose. Bravery and patriotism are out of the question.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 08:55 | 6942540 Wow72
Wow72's picture

The thing is, either way you lose everything.  Its still ends the same way, so its better to do it sooner than later.  Thats what people dont seem to get.. Its like watching something in slow-motion and simply not reacting to it.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 10:11 | 6942659 SirBarksAlot
SirBarksAlot's picture

Everyone is buying weapons to protect themselves from their starving neighbors when the dollar crashes.  That's what the underground hype is.  It is how they will win.

Instead, we should all be talking to our neighbors on a weekly basis, asking them how do they think things are going to go down.  And this isn't easy. I tried to plant a community garden on one of my properties.  The neighborhood, seeing that I apparently didn't need the land, started parking their vehicles on it.  It ended in a big fight.  You warn people, then the inevitable gets delayed and they think they "won."

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 17:42 | 6943779 Demdere
Demdere's picture

https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/for-world-peace-arm-your-n...

Not at all idealism, good practical advice for making your future good.  If you can't trust your neighbor, marry his sister. Etc.

We are in a negative-sum game if we allow that.  If we don't like the idea of losing, let's make it a positive-sum game.

Get serious people, the enemy is in our own government and all the flaccid minds that inhabit the bureaucracy and officer corps and all other Federally-paid or -funded bureaucrats.

Minions of the Deep State, the most visible part of which is Israeli-Neocons.  They are the enemy.

Please focus, we need to take care of all this soon, and hating your fellow Americans and immigrants and refugees is playing into the hands of the Israeli-Neocons.  None of those groups are any more in control of their fates than you are of yours, and we all have the same problem.

So do something positive, go kiss a refugee, invite an immigrant to tea, get involved with the lives of the peole around you. You can't have too many friends or too few enemies in hard times.

Sun, 12/20/2015 - 01:01 | 6945101 Chris Dakota
Chris Dakota's picture

The country so deeply divided it won't heal.

Me, I don't like anyone anymore, I am surrounded by Obama voters who

helped to wreck the country. I don't want to know them.

 

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 12:32 | 6943003 Sir John Bagot Glubb
Sir John Bagot Glubb's picture

Well, and we've all worked hard to provide for our kids and grandkids.  Now if you commit a crime or a civil violation of some kind, they take all your money.  That scares patriots from taking action.   That's just hurting your family.  Trump is criticized for saying he'd go after terrorists' families but that's what our government does every day to its own citizens with its exorbitant fines and forfeitures.  Dodd Frank allows the SEC to fine little brokerage firms and stockbrokers up to $250,000 for mere clerical errors.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 08:33 | 6942510 To Hell In A Ha...
To Hell In A Handbasket's picture

What's all the fuss? BIG GUBERMINT has never abused the law, so why worry? These powers will only be used against the towel heads and Islamist's; AKA; The Terrorists. It's not like the GUBERMINT has falsely arrested somebody on anti-terrorism charges, as an intrusive justification to further their inquiries. You were ridiculed as being anti-American if you objected against the original Patriot Act, and FOX News et al, will accuse you of being a terrorist sympathiser if you question the veracity, narrative and logic of this new act, you un-American bastards. No doubt, dual nationalist Senator Shysterman, will tell the media how this new legislation is vital to the interests and security of the United States in the ongoing War On Terror, while no journalists will ask him about the creation, funding, arming, training and oil sales of ISIS. When will it fucking sink in for the anti-Muslim/anti-Islam retards on ZH? Draconian laws aimed at imaginary enemies, over exaggerated and over hyped, are inevitably used against the general population when needed. USA! USA! USA! WooT! 

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 09:07 | 6942562 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Let me know when we can't use words .... like "nigger" .... without disclaimers and quotes and italics .... this message is without racial malice .... molon labe for word smithies ?

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 09:11 | 6942567 Monetas
Monetas's picture

Star Wars was shown last night in Mexico .... they violated the "Hitchcock Rules" .... there were no "pretty prople eye candy" .... just old people and the usual bar scene creeps .... and a couple of programmable vacuum cleaners ?

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 09:54 | 6942639 Monetas
Monetas's picture

A faggot should not exprect privacy .... when he scribbles his phone number .... on the bathroom wall ?

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 10:14 | 6942664 DullKnife
DullKnife's picture

In the old U.S.S.R. dictatorship that ruled regardless of what the citizens wanted, they had an elected "legislative body" that was merely a rubber stamp for approving whatever new laws/rules the Central Committee wanted.

In the new U.S.S.A. "Constitutional Republic" there is an elected "legislative body" that is merely a rubber stamp for approving whatever new laws/rules the "ruling class" wants.  

See.....big difference between these two widely different forms of Government.

<cough>

 

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 12:34 | 6943009 Sir John Bagot Glubb
Sir John Bagot Glubb's picture

That's what Obama has done.  He has "Sovietized" us in but 7 years.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 17:47 | 6943798 Demdere
Demdere's picture

Obama and Shrub and ... all the way back were compromise candidates with ALL of the interested parties.  All of the candidates give up some pound of personal integrity to get into the Whitehouse. Given the depth of cover for Obama, a genuinely professional job, Obama is deeply owned.  Why are the rumors coming out now?  Whose interest are those leaks serving?

The system is broken, Obama is symptom far more than cause.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 10:22 | 6942676 Manipuflation
Manipuflation's picture

What are we fighting for?  I am jaded.  I have everything we all talk about buying and I will share.  I just want to know what we are fighting for.  We are all too worried about what is going on in other countries.  We should pay attention to our own selves and not worry about other people. 

I have everything we need.  Food, guns, ammo, tools, gold, silver, cars/trucks, more tools, more guns, more ammo.  What are we doing?  I like north Idaho.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 11:57 | 6942903 J Jason Djfmam
J Jason Djfmam's picture

Wurr fightin' for arr freedumbs!

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 14:20 | 6943275 Wow72
Wow72's picture

We are fighting to regain freedom.  We have no say over our laws,  candidates, or anything anymore.  We are constantly being over governed.  They even avoid getting Congresss approval for war.. We have "Private" bankers (FED) "Guiding" the economy?  Its FUCKED.  We have people who dont listen but follow agenda's.  They will say anything and do the exact opposite, time and time again.   The fight is really for everything good people built that greed is hell bent on destroying.  As soon as money entered politics real freedom was over.  We need to be by and for the people again.  Its not a big deal, it really wouldnt take a big fight, just a few million angry Americans, which I think we could do.  We have a government with a 10-15% approval rating that does nothing but cause problems? 85-90% disprove? Wow? Its like fucking magic? How do they stay in power?  They give people money.  We need not be angry amongst ourselves but at them.  We need to replace them with people that are fairly elected without large amounts of big money backing them.  Good people, for the people and by the people.  People who value and respect our values especially our sovereignty.  A government that wants a "one" world government has nothing to do with "American" interests.. Its just an attempt to overthrow our system. My new saying is FUCK EM! 

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 19:38 | 6943618 Wow72
Wow72's picture

To simplify even further all we need to do is strip the politicians of their protection and their guns and we can see how long they last.. My guess is it wouldnt be more than a few days.

 

We should not allow politicians to have guns or any protection and as long as they are alive we will know they are probably good or decent? We keep the guns, they dont.  They cant handle them.

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 11:13 | 6942790 wizteknet
wizteknet's picture

 

Yeas Nays PRES NV Republican 150 95   1 Democratic 166 18   4 Independent         TOTALS 316 113   5
Sat, 12/19/2015 - 13:17 | 6943115 MASTER OF UNIVERSE
MASTER OF UNIVERSE's picture

"Online privacy"??????????????

 

is that something you eat?

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 13:39 | 6943180 kaboomnomic
kaboomnomic's picture

Looks like most americans don't care about this.

So, why should we the outsider's should even think about this??

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 17:37 | 6943747 windcatcher
windcatcher's picture

Congress and Berry Seutero yesterday passed into law CISA and a trillion dollar American infrastructure spending bill for roads and bridges etc..

Simple economics: A trillion dollars injected into the Main Street Capitalist economy will create jobs to stimulate the flow of money in the American Main Street Capitalist economy: that is what should have been done 15 years ago instead of giving the monopoly corporatist economy of banksters and war 19 trillion. We could have gotten back to the Science of Forestry and rehabilitated our fire trap abandoned timber lands and thereby done something meaningful about global warming and jobs in America..

Sat, 12/19/2015 - 18:11 | 6943890 Demdere
Demdere's picture

Not even close. The Treasuries auctions of Treasuries goes through 5 large banks who buy them all, except for recently other Central banks have been buyers and banks and foreign countries have been net sellers.

When the CBs buy all of the treasuries, the Ponzi is done, Naional Debt begins rolling over onto the growing pile of created Fiat Electronic Dollars, losing valye at a hell of a rate.  $1T / year created > 10% inflation, according to ShadowStats.  What new rrecord for acceleration do you think $5T / year will achieve, that amount dumped into a moribund economy run by a Kleptocracy, with now even the dumbest money in the universe, Public Pension Funds, evading laws on capital controls.  (I made that up, but now that I think of it, sure.  Somebody cares enough for both honest and dishonest versions.)

https://thinkpatriot.wordpress.com/2015/10/27/ignoring-the-absolutely-in...

All this is marching public opinion along in the necessary directions.

There is a gulag in our future.

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!