Surveillance State

Senator Ron Wyden has a warning for our country.

“The combination of increasingly advanced technology with a breakdown in the checks and balances that limit government action could lead us to a surveillance state that cannot be reversed.”

There was an amendment in the House limiting warrantless surveillance that was proposed to be attached to the Defense Appropriations bill, but the amendment was voted down

Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Dianne Feinstien (D-CA) and Ranking Member Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), however, found the Amash-Conyers amendment to go too far, issuing a joint statement saying “that any amendments to defund the program on appropriations bills would be unwise.” When ThinkProgress asked whether he disagreed with the two, Wyden demurred. “I can’t speculate on something I haven’t seen,” he said, adding that “I think it is a very, very healthy thing that the House is having a debate and starting the effort to expose the false choice” between privacy and security.
Snowden has been criticized for the way in which he chose to reveal the programs listed. Given his emphasis on his efforts to work within Senate rules on classification to reveal to the American public the extent of these programs, ThinkProgress asked Wyden whether he considered the process in which Snowden leaked that information to be irresponsible. Wyden noted that it’s his policy not to comment on individuals charged criminally, as Snowden has been, and that “this is a debate that should have been started by elected officials, not Mr. Snowden, and I feel very strongly about that.”