CYBERWAR/INTELLIGENCE: “The U.S. Senate on Thursday [1-18-18] voted to reauthorize for six years a key surveillance law, sending a bill that permits a wide range of electronic spying to President Donald Trump for his approval.
With the bill’s passage, Congress rejected an attempt by a coalition of conservative Republicans, civil libertarians and liberal Democrats to enact new privacy protections for Americans caught up in U.S. surveillance. The House passed the bill on Jan. 11; Mr. Trump is expected to sign it.
The measure’s passage on a 65-to-34 vote Thursday ended more than a month of debate in Congress about the future of the surveillance law, called the FISA Amendments Act. Section 702 of the act underpins a wide range of electronic collection against foreign targets overseas and has been referred to by officials as critical to national security. The law was set to expire Friday absent congressional action.
Disclosures in 2013 by former government intelligence contractor Edward Snowden of the scope of U.S. intelligence collection has given momentum to a vocal, bipartisan group of lawmakers who sought better privacy protections for Americans and more restrictions on U.S. intelligence collection.”
-Byron Tau, “Senate Approves Extension of Electronic Surveillance Law,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 18, 2018 12:54pm