How does the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act improve our intelligence gathering and protect our borders?
460432
There are many forms of "electronic" surveillance that have been shared by various allies since 9-11. The Foreign Surveillance Act makes this process much more extensive, consistant, and streamlined.\n\nThe increased use of Biometrics and the "suspect database" has been shared between the United States, Britian, France, Germany, Isreal, and a few other countries, much more over the last 5 years. \n\nThe most common form of Biometrics is a facial recognition surveillance system which can map a suspects face and store a "Facial Map" into a database which is comprised of 14 different measurements of the suspects facial features. Meaning, the suspect can wear a wig and sunglasses and the software will still recognize his individual "facial map". The system can then detect any suspect in the database when they pass through an area with surveillance cameras that are being outputted into the Biometric system. This system and database has been shared by various countries and is installed in hundreds of airports around the world. \n\nThe ability to share this database is a huge advancement resulting from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
374375
Bring in the National Guard. Forced expulsion - not unlike taking syrup of ipecac when you've ingested a poison. Then we seal the borders. We have the technology, and with the money that we save from no longer supporting 20 million leeches, we can afford to do what it takes to keep it sealed.
470007
The US government has blimps that are supposed to be used to fight crime.  So far they haven't done much good.  We've got a whole array of them along the US-Mexico border carrying radar equipment to look for drug smugglers in low flying aircraft.
66377
Good point.\n\nMost of our lives are too boring to warrant the attention of government intelligence agencies.\n\nYes, I value my privacy, but am in more fear of losing it to marketing agencies than spy networks.
45306
By the authority vested in me as President by Sections 102 and\n   104 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C.\n   1802 and 1804), in order to provide as set forth in that Act (this\n   chapter) for the authorization of electronic surveillance for\n   foreign intelligence purposes, it is hereby ordered as follows:\n\n     1-101. Pursuant to Section 102(a)(1) of the Foreign Intelligence\n   Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(a)), the Attorney General\n   is authorized to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign\n   intelligence information without a court order, but only if the\n   Attorney General makes the certifications required by that Section.\n\n     1-102. Pursuant to Section 102(b) of the Foreign Intelligence Act\n   of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1802(b)), the Attorney General is authorized to\n   approve applications to the court having jurisdiction under Section\n   103 of that Act (50 U.S.C. 1803) to obtain orders for electronic\n   surveillance for the purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence\n   information.\n\n     1-103. Pursuant to Section 104(a)(7) of the Foreign Intelligence\n   Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1804(a)(7)), the following\n   officials, each of whom is employed in the area of national\n   security or defense, is designated to make the certifications\n   required by Section 104(a)(7) of the Act in support of applications\n   to conduct electronic surveillance:\n\n       (a) Secretary of State.\n\n       (b) Secretary of Defense.\n\n       (c) Director of Central Intelligence.\n\n       (d) Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.\n\n       (e) Deputy Secretary of State.\n\n       (f) Deputy Secretary of Defense.\n\n       (g) Deputy Director of Central Intelligence.\n\n   None of the above officials, nor anyone officially acting in that\n   capacity, may exercise the authority to make the above\n   certifications, unless that official has been appointed by the\n   President with the advice and consent of the Senate.\n\n     1-104. Section 2-202 of Executive Order No. 12036 (set out under\n   section 401 of this title) is amended by inserting the following at\n   the end of that section: ''Any electronic surveillance, as defined\n   in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, shall be\n   conducted in accordance with that Act as well as this Order.''.\n\n     1-105. Section 2-203 of Executive Order No. 12036 (set out under\n   section 401 of this title) is amended by inserting the following at\n   the end of that section: ''Any monitoring which constitutes\n   electronic surveillance as defined in the Foreign Intelligence\n   Surveillance Act of 1978 shall be conducted in accordance with that\n   Act as well as this Order.''.                          \n\n                                                              Jimmy Carter.\n\nFormer President Jimmy Carter, who publicly rebuked President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program this week during the funeral of Coretta Scott King and at a campaign event, used similar surveillance against suspected spies. \n    "Under the Bush administration, there's been a disgraceful and illegal decision -- we're not going to the let the judges or the Congress or anyone else know that we're spying on the American people," Mr. Carter said Monday in Nevada when his son Jack announced his Senate campaign. \n    "And no one knows how many innocent Americans have had their privacy violated under this secret act," he said. \n    The next day at Mrs. King's high-profile funeral, Mr. Carter evoked a comparison to the Bush policy when referring to the "secret government wiretapping" of civil rights leader Martin Luther King. \n    But in 1977, Mr. Carter and his attorney general, Griffin B. Bell, authorized warrantless electronic surveillance used in the conviction of two men for spying on behalf of Vietnam. \n    The men, Truong Dinh Hu
170557
The Patriot Act helps law enforcement officers find and arrest terrorists more easily. It also helps in more common crimes too.\n\nUnfortunately, its liberal use of bugging is considered a violation of privacy, since it makes bugging people easy for law enforcement. On the other hand, though, the government should have no need to bug you unless you need bugging. And besides, they don't have the manpower to bug everyone.\n\nThe government can spy on people anyway, or bug them, so it makes little difference. Now it's just easier, faster, and safer for cops. Privacy is nice, but I prefer to be alive and have a tiny bit less privacy.\n\nTo the person below me: it is not at all a false sense of security, because the Patriot Act's greatest impact is on law enforcement, not crime prevention. Putting NYPD officer at every large building and subway station is false security. But making it easier for FBI agents to collect evidence to convict criminals is not false at all.
976731
The responses to this question amaze me! Why does everyone act like The patriot act really changed anything as far as this issue goes? Did not FDR  use surveillance on German and Japanese Americans during WW II? Did not Kennedy and Johnson use the FBI to run surveillance on Martin Luther King and others in the 60's? Did not Nixon authorize  Surveillance of John Lennon and other anti war protesters. Did not the Clinton administration collect dossiers made by private investigators on political enemies?. I am not supporting all these actions some were wrong some were right some were questionable. This blustering over the patriot act is 85% politically motivated is my point. Yes there are some concerns but the One of the governments chief responsibilities is protecting it's people and defending it's borders. In Every war and instance of Civil strife the government has used domestic intelligence to gather information. The major difference today in we live in the age of 24 hr. news and the Internet and much more information is publicly available than ever before. To argue because it is the NSA instead of the FBI doing the spying is arguing semantics spying is spying and sometimes it's justified. At least in this case all but the most hard core bush opponents should agree that the threat is genuine and the intent is to protect the citizenry not politically motivated like the action of LBJ, Nixon etc...
706275
Border Security and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2005\n\nThis is what it included and the cost was 870 Million!
1001947
The government, especially all spy and security agencies, is going to do what it wants when it wants.  I think it is just a  fluke that we know they have been listening in on us this time.\n\nAs for me, I don't plan on doing anything to harm the government so I don't really care.  We are already being watched over by Big Brother, why should listening in matter?
433259
What is your suggestion?  Do we need greater surveillance?  Or will our problems be solved by the meeting of a variety of great thinkers with diverse philosophies?\n\nGreater surveillance impinges on the rights of the many to protect the lives of the few.  We must be careful to consider the long-term consequences of greater surveillance.\n\nThe collaboration of a variety of great thinkers, however, would be valuable as we navigate through these difficult times.  (Hitler does NOT constitute a great philosopher, though!)
983891
The problem with the Patriot Act is that while it does provide a clause allowing judicial oversight, Title IV Section 412 includes provisions for judicial review in detentions, and Title II deals with warrant requirements for electronic surveillance, it does not make this oversight mandatory.\n\nThis means that these provisions are allowed to go unenforced. You see, the Executive Branch is in charge of this enforcement. So what we are seeing now and basically have a wide-open window to is when the laws get in the way of what Bush wants to accomplish, he just chooses not to enforce them.\n\nAlso, the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments are limitations on government action, and apply to anyone under US authority or control. Nowhere does it mention 'citizen'.\n\nAs far as warrantless wiretapping, 50 U.S.C. §1801 et al. Warrantless wiretapping is illegal under FISA if any US citizen or resident alien is a party to the conversation. Also 18 U.S.C. § 2511: Compliance with FISA "shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance... may be conducted". The Patriot Act runs head to head into legalities here.
385043
The National Security Agency, or the NSA, is an intelligence gathering agency.  Their mission is to gather information on threats and potetnial threats to the United States, primarily through Signals Intelligence (electronic communications).  To that end they should have a great deal of flexibility on gathering information that may relate to this mission.  It is very unlikely that an actual person ever reads all the email or listens to all the phone calls made (just the volume generated in the time between when you asked this question and when I posted an answer would be more than a days work for an individual analyst) so what is looked for has to be targeted (Specific Phone Numbers and Emails known or suspected to belong to terrorists, and even these are probably sorted electronically) to even be remotely useful.  The second issue is that even if this information is gathered and used to stop terrorist attacks, it probably can't be used against US Citizens to pursue criminals, so if for example the NSA caught an entire conversation detailing how the Mafia was laundering money (and happened to notice they had it) they probably could not turn it over to the Department of Justice to prosecute.
862941
The 'immigrant wall'?\n\nThey are talking about a two to three layer fence in urban areas to make it less easy to dash across in groups and scatter through yards.  In other areas where the concern is more the drug runner sort, it will be vehicle barriers.  In other areas there will be cameras, sensors and unmanned drone aircraft feeding information to border patrol.\n\nFrankly, this last should also cut down on people dying in the desert, though I certainly wouldn't want to count on it.
1065059
No, it already is a fascist governemnt, look at how out of touch the government is with the will of the people. We have illegal immigrants poised to get total amnesty. We have a supreme court that rules that local government can sieze your private property without giving just compensation as long as there is a money benefit in it for the local government. And our congress has passed the patriot act in direct violation of the 4th amendment (sneak and peak warrants with no judicail oversight, just a rubber stamp FISA court that must be notified 72 hours-3 months after the search was conducted).
124805
Absolutely. In fact, we need the military, walls, mine fields, razor wire, concertina wire, heat sensors, motion sensors, seismic sensors, gates, dogs, and Lord knows what else on our borders.\n\nIt seems kind of foolish to me to spend billions of dollars securing the airports when any would-be terrorist can simply walk across the border from either Canada or Mexico, and no one would know about it.
549241
Illegal immigration is the biggest topic right now as far as border control. So is the bill passing through the senate about English becoming the official language of America. \n\nThe NSA scandal is mostly conspiracy theories at this point in the media. \n\nYou'll cover more ground on the immigration issues. I am giving you links to the most well-respected media outlets.\n\nGood luck on your paper :O)
838748
Of course and here's why\n\nAgainst the NSA international spying program\nAgainst the SWIFT program\nWant Geneva Convention protection for non uniformed terrorists\nGive terrorists Constitutional rights\nAgainst a fence on theMexico and the United States boarder\nWant amnesty for illegals (ask Ted Kennedy)\n\nList goes on. Those are off the top of my head