TYB
FBI power to eavesdrop on Americans likely to be curtailed
The House approved legislation on Wednesday, 278-136, that would make it harder to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreigners under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, better known as FISA. The measure now goes to the Senate, where one member’s opposition could still prevent it from reaching Trump for his signature before some of the act’s powers expire on Sunday.
Senate Republican leaders, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, issued a statement of support. “This legislation balances the need to reauthorize these critical authorities with the need for tailored reforms to increase accountability,” they said.
Surveillance authority became hotly controversial after it was revealed that the FBI used it to eavesdrop on Carter Page, a former foreign policy advisor to Trump’s campaign, during the 2016 race. A subsequent report from the Justice Department inspector general said law enforcement officials had mishandled the case by withholding information from the secret court that approved the FISA warrant and renewed it three times.
The bill calls for restricting the government’s ability to obtain cellphone records in national security investigations. It would require the FBI to certify that all relevant information has been provided to the court and to appoint compliance officers to ensure applications for warrants are handled appropriately.
The attorney general would be required to approve any surveillance of federal elected officials or candidates for federal office.
If the proposals become law, it would reflect a rare moment of bipartisan compromise for factions that battled over the Russia investigation and the subsequent impeachment of Trump for his dealings with Ukraine.
“These reforms are an extraordinary accomplishment in a period of divided government,” said House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield).
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said the legislation “makes a number of critical and important reforms to strengthen civil liberties and privacy protections … while simultaneously protecting the national security of the United States.”
Atty. Gen. William Barr, who has worked with lawmakers to nail down details of the proposals, said Wednesday that he supports the legislation.
“The bill contains an array of new requirements and compliance provisions that will protect against abuse and misuse in the future while ensuring that this critical tool is available when appropriate to protect the safety of the American people,” he said in a statement.
The American Civil Liberties Union called the legislation a “half measure.”
“With only minimal improvements over current law, the reforms in this backroom deal fall far short of what is needed to protect our privacy rights,” Christopher Anders, its deputy political director, said in a statement. “This proposal will continue to allow secret courts to issue secret orders and the federal government will continue spying on Americans without the kind of oversight and adversarial process that all Americans should expect of our government and our courts.”
It’s unclear whether libertarian conservatives in the Senate, notably Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), will decide to stall the debate and allow the surveillance powers to expire. “Weak sauce reform,” he tweeted after the House vote. “This doesn’t fix the problem! Let’s do real reform now!”
Trump also remains a wild card. Ever since his Senate acquittal after impeachment by the House for his conduct toward Ukraine, he’s been eager to strike back at the law enforcement and intelligence agencies that he believes wronged him during the Russia investigation.
During the 2016 race, the FBI began investigating Moscow’s efforts to boost Trump’s campaign by releasing emails hacked from Democrats and spreading misinformation on social media. Page was the target of surveillance because of his contacts with Russians, but he was never charged with any wrongdoing.
Republicans have long portrayed this as evidence that investigators were biased against Trump, particularly because they included Democratic-funded opposition research in the application for a warrant.
“This is fallout that the bureau deserves for how shoddily they did that work” in the Page case, Montoya said. “There is some frustration that the rules are going to be stricter but at the same time these are the lessons of what happens when you half-ass a FISA application.”
https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-03-11/fbi-power-eavesdrop-on-americans-likely-curtailed
King of Abortion: Warren Buffet Has Spent $4 Billion, Enough to Kill 8 Million Babies in Abortions
Warren Buffett is one of the richest men in the world. But rather than using his fortune to help people, he donates huge amounts of money to promote the killing of unborn babies in abortions across the world.
According to Capital Research Center, the billionaire’s Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation donated $4 billion to abortion advocacy groups between 2000 and 2018.
The largest recipients include Planned Parenthood, Marie Stopes International and the National Abortion Federation.
Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion chain in America, received about $675 million from the foundation within the past two decades, while the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion research group linked to Planned Parenthood, received more than $112 million, according to the research.
Additionally, the foundation gave $293 million to the National Abortion Federation, the research center reported.
Buffett’s foundation also supports one of the largest abortion chains in the world, Marie Stopes International. The British-based abortion group does abortions all across the world, despite mounting evidence of health and safety violations, botched abortions, illegal abortions and more. It received $441 million from the American billionaire’s foundation in the past 20 years, according to the report.
Here’s more from the report:
Gynuity Health Projects is another key group, which received $36 million from the Buffett Foundation. As I’ve recently written, Gynuity is a New York LLC-turned-nonprofit that conducts horrifying experiments on women in Burkina Faso, a destitute country in West Africa. The group provides mail-order abortion drugs in the U.S. designed to induce a miscarriage in the first trimester. The drugs being tested in Africa would extend that to the second trimester, effectively enabling at-home abortion of fetuses up to 28 weeks old.
Other abortion groups that received money from Buffett include: NARAL Pro-Choice America – $31 million, Population Services International – $416 million, National Network of Abortion Funds – $11.4 million, National Women’s Law Center – $27.1 million, Physicians for Reproductive Choice and Health – $28 million, the World Health Organization – $17 million, and others.
Forbes lists Buffett as the third richest man in the world, but he is not the only American billionaire pouring money to the abortion industry. George Soros, Bill Gates, Michael Bloomberg, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation (run by the heirs of one of the founders of Hewlett Packard), and others also give huge donations to abortion advocacy groups across the globe.
An estimated 42.3 million unborn babies were aborted in the world in 2019, including nearly 1 million in the United States. These babies were unique, living human beings who deserved a right to life. So many babies, mothers and fathers could be saved from the pain and regret of abortion if only men like Buffett and Soros chose to use their money to help people. Instead, they are funding the largest killing industry in the world.
https://www.lifenews.com/2020/03/11/king-of-abortion-warren-buffet-has-spent-4-billion-enough-to-kill-8-million-babies-in-abortions/