THE HILL — Liberal groups, transparency advocates and the whistleblower behind the Pentagon Papers are coming out strongly against a Senate bill to reform the National Security Agency (NSA), arguing the reforms it contains are inadequate.
Activists and whistleblowers told members of Congress in a letter on Monday that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy’s (D-Vt.) USA Freedom Act “contains ambiguities that are ripe for abuse” and “fails to protect against future privacy invasions of innocent people.”
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hey said the bill — which would end the NSA’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records and make some changes to the secretive federal court overseeing surveillance activities — does not ban “backdoor” searches of Americans’ communications through a legal power meant to target people overseas. The bill would also reauthorize the Patriot Act.
“Our fundamental civil rights — the human rights we hold dear — are not adequately protected by either the Senate or House versions of the USA Freedom Act,” wrote the groups and individuals, including the Sunlight Foundation, CREDO Action, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Daniel Ellsberg and Thomas Drake.
The new backlash could hinder the bill, which was already on a tight path to the Senate floor.
Read more at The Hill.
