CIVIL LIBERTIES GROUPS VOW TO FIGHT ON AFTER SENATE KILLS USA FREEDOM ACT (STA BREAKING NEWS and ARCHIVES)

by STANews , Wednesday, November 19, 2014, 12:09

Stunned and dejected by the death of a bill to restrain National Security Agency surveillance, civil libertarian groups vowed to return to the daunting effort in the next Congress.

The USA Freedom Act, a consensus bill that would have divested the NSA of the bulk US phone records database disclosed last year by the Guardian thanks to Edward Snowden’s leaks, failed by two votes to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate late on Tuesday. Overwhelmingly, the bill’s opponents cited the prospect of a domestic terrorist attack from the Islamic State (Isis) as a motivator for their vote, even though not even the NSA continues to argue that the phone-data dragnet would prevent one.

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http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2014/nov/19/senate-kills-nsa-reform-bill-civil-liberties-groups