Trump Administration Wants Permanent Repeal of the 4th Amendment
Departing Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats sent Congress a letter requesting that several features of the misnamed USA FREEDOM Act be made permanent, allowing the US government to spy in Americans in perpetuity. The Trump Administration wants to be able to intercept phone calls and text messages as well as snoop into business records and other violations of the Fourth Amendment. The FREEDOM Act was passed after Ed Snowden revealed that the NSA was illegally spying on American citizens. Falsely advertised as "reform," the replacement bill only made "legal" the illegality of the PATRIOT Act. Will Americans find the will to oppose this creeping tyranny?
Hello, everybody, and thank you for tuning into the Liberty Report.
Today, we are doing it by audio because of our conference in Dallas this week coming, and Daniel's on the road, but we still wanted to visit with you on a regular basis.
And today we have Daniel remotely.
Daniel, welcome to the program.
Good morning, Dr. Paul.
How are you?
Doing fine.
And what I'd like to visit with you today on is this request from the administration and also from Dan Coates, the director of national security, who's on his way out, but also supported by the president, obviously.
And that is to reauthorize NSA spying funds.
Well, this seems to be so strange.
I know you know this issue, but you know, this has been a big deal.
You know, even when I was still back in Congress, that was when, of course, the Patriot Act was passed over to my strong objection.
But buried in that was the ability to spy on American people.
And the revelation to what they were doing and how they were abusing it was made by Ed Snowden, who became a hero for anybody who cared about civil liberties and our Constitution.
And this was a big deal, and it was a political deal.
And as you recall so clearly, they went back to work, you know, to redo it, fix it.
We've been exposed, so we're going to do something.
And that was dangerous because they made it worse.
So they took the Patriot Act and turned it into the Freedom Act and the Freedom Act.
And things are actually gotten worse.
That's to expire, as I understand, at the end of this year.
And as you well know, it's not very effective except for the damage it does.
You know, it's not good in trying to protect anybody.
So it is an important issue, but for a lot of people, it's esoteric.
But for anybody who cares about personal liberty and the Fourth Amendment ought to be very concerned about what's going on.
Yeah, exactly.
And, you know, the national security state was chugging along just fine after the 2001 passage of the Patriot Act.
And as you say, when Ed Snowden blew the whistle on the fact that it was the government considering us the terrorists and spying on all of our stuff, and Americans did get up in arms for a brief period.
In fact, they got so up in arms that it frightened the deep establishment.
And that's why they reacted.
But, you know, the first cue, Dr. Paul, that something was wrong here is that when the same guy who wrote the Patriot Act, Senson Brenner, wrote the Freedom Act.
So, I mean, that was a bit of a clue.
But as this went out, you know, the Patriot Act, what Snowden showed us, is that the NSA and the U.S. government was doing terrible illegal things, stealing our information, spying on us.
And what did the Freedom Act do?
But it made it legal for them to do it.
Right.
And they always do the same thing.
They say, oh, it's going to sunset.
Don't worry.
It's just temporary, just temporary.
But whenever it gets close, then they start blowing the panic button, you know, pushing the panic button.
Well, I think these bills that have been passed fit the complaint that I always have, and you've heard me because you share the opinion, is look for the title.
And if you see the title, you know they're doing exactly the opposite.
So if they're talking about patriotism, don't bet on it.
If they're talking about freedom, actually, it should be named the Tyranny Act, you know, a bold step toward tyranny.
That's what they're doing.
But the amazing thing to me is even Coates admitted, you know, that it's too expensive.
It's not very efficient.
But just in case someday we need this, we want it on the books.
And it's so absurd.
And it's amazing that they can sell it with such lousy PR, but they do.
And it looks like it'll probably get passed.
Who knows?
But I hope a few people wake up and say, hey, don't renew this.
Don't reauthorize it.
We should get rid of it and make a strong statement of why it shouldn't even exist.
It's interesting that they're, you know, first of all, they're utterly lawless, but it's interesting how concerned they are to give it the appearance of being under the law.
You know, they say, even though we don't need it, even though, you know, they've been caught collecting hundreds of millions of more records than they're allowed to because they can't control this beast that they created, even though that happens, even though, you know, a lot of people that follow this closely say they're not even using the Freedom Act.
They're using something, I think it was under Reagan, an executive order to collect this stuff.
They don't even need it.
But they still want to have that veneer of legality.
And that's kind of interesting.
Maybe that's an end for those of us concerned about civil liberties.
Yeah, it reminds me they want to appear legal.
And that is the reason that it's a totalitarian society.
People they know they're going to kill and execute, they always want a confession.
And then that makes it confess to it.
We can do it.
And they buy into that.
But the other part of what the administration is asking for is this is just not a delay.
It's not tinkering.
They want it permanent.
They're getting tired of asking for this to come up every time.
Maybe the Congress will get tired of it.
But the other point is they're going to use some law someplace and they'll still do it because it is a lawless government.
It's a lawless society.
Of course, it's been going on.
And if you approach anything we have done in the Washington for the last 50 or 100 years, technically, where is the authority?
Where is it in Article 1, Section 8 that said, this is what you guys are allowed to do?
It's not there, and the questions aren't asked, and they tinker around these edges.
And I just really get annoyed about the imperial presidency, that the executive orders can be written.
They can go to war without permission, and the Congress rolls over.
And of course, because we have an empire, we have too many other countries that are willing to roll over for us and to permit us to pursue our total control of the world through finances.
And we hear on a daily basis, how the sanctions are backfiring and all the problems going on in the Middle East.
But it doesn't seem, though, that all of a sudden we're going to have wisdom seep into the Congress and they're going to do the right thing.
But I still think it's very important for us and anybody that views our program to spread the message the best they can.
Try to get people, figure out a way you can reach people.
That is still, you know, the only thing that is available to it.
It used to be that it was automatic with the Internet, but even that has some shortcomings.
So the one-on-one using people's email lists and all is still permissible.
It's still, you know, there's still a way to pass a message around.
And that's the way it's been throughout history.
So I hope this stirs some people up, and I hope people reach, you know, can reach out to their friends and neighbors and family and tell them, you know, this is pretty serious, you know.
And I don't think the American people are quite worried about it because it just happens.
And I sense the whole feeling, Daniel, of what it is like.
What can we do to stop it?
But I still believe strongly.
It's information and understanding that we have to continue with.
Yeah, the example is when Snowden's revelations came.
It showed that they really are concerned what people think in public opinion.
But you know, this whole Coates letter, you know, this is one of the last things he did before leaving.
But the whole Dan Coates letter to Congress, it kind of reminds me almost of what they did on the budget, Dr. Paul.
They said, we're tired of coming back to increase the spending limits.
Let's just get rid of the whole thing.
And that's the tool.
That's the tool they used to twist arms.
You remember back during the October 2001 debate on the Patriot Act, they're worsen people on the fence.
And what they use to twist their arms is, hey, don't worry, this is a crisis situation.
These are temporary.
They're going to sunset.
We have to temporarily suspend our civil liberties.
And that was the promise.
And now they don't even have that fig leaf.
They just say, make it permanent.
Get rid of spending caps.
Get rid of our civil liberties.
But I just want to point out that there are four aspects of the so-called Freedom Act that they want to make permanent.
First of all is the NSA's intercept of our phone calls and texts, which in 2017 collected half a billion records.
The second is a provision allowing the NSA to go to court to get business records for those it suspects of for national security reasons.
The third is the wiretap lone wolf, which is where they can wiretap people who aren't connected to any foreign governments.
And the last one, the fourth one, is to continue wiretapping someone if they get a different phone.
So these are the things that are also up to sunset in December.
And these are the things that Dan Coates tells Congress we want to make permanent.
You know, it's all done in the name of fighting terrorism.
So we're probably going to start hearing a lot more about terrorism if Americans get stirred up about this.
They're terrified that peace may break out and they won't need all this.
But there's no doubt that this needs to be pursued.
I hope we're able to keep up with this and inform our viewers and listeners about what's happening and encourage everybody to do what they can to spread this message.
And that means, you know, occasionally, if you happen to know a member of Congress, grab them and talk to them and let them know.
Because quite frankly, the members that I knew so often, you know, they were working in their office.
They're talking to constituents and who knows whom.
And then they walk to the floor and they don't even know what the bill is.
And they have to walk over and ask the manager of the bill and they look at a pad of paper and they say, what is this bill?
What about we worry on?
Oh, who supports this bill?
And then they look at a list.
So they're not up to date.
And I know it's frustrating to think you're one vote, one person, but no, they will pay attention if a person is credible and if there's more than one person.
And I think that's the difference.
And there can be some changes, but it's very, very tedious.
But it all goes back to one thing, and that is the education and understanding of the electorate on what do they really want.
And unfortunately, we still have an electorate, which includes those in the military-industrial complex, that they've adopted this philosophy that deficits don't matter.
You can print money if you need it.
And the Constitution is a document we don't have to worry about.
And we have a moral responsibility to take care of the people who are in need.
And we have a moral responsibility to police the world.
And they believe this.
So it's a pretty hard thing.
But we need to curtail their activities.
And I think the other thing, Dr. Paul, of course, communicating with Congress is good.
Education Matters00:01:49
You know, we would go talk to you if we got a bunch of calls about something.
It's important to relate that, and I think they still do that.
But the other thing is to try to remember to retain that sense of outrage.
You know, I think we get desensitized to these things.
It seems like we can't do anything, so we just get desensitized.
Oh, well, I got nothing to hide.
I guess I can't stop them.
You know, we need to, Americans need to try to retain the outrage that many millions of them felt when Snowden. revealed that our government considers us the enemy rather than some terrorist overseas.
So I think that would be key.
Yeah, and the sad part of all that was so many of us see Ed Snowden as a person of heroic measures and the way he's treated by our government.
You can't tell the truth in an empire.
You know, they only live with lies.
So anyway, Daniel, you want to finish up and tell everybody you'll see him up there at Dallas Airport at the end of the week.
Yeah, we're very excited.
Things are going well.
We're going to hit the road.
We've got some things new.
In fact, we have our scholars seminar the day before, which we're really excited about launching.
So we'll have to do a couple audio shows.
I'm happy to report, Dr. Paul, that the conference is very nearly sold out.
I think at last check, there's maybe a table and a half left.
So that means I hate it when people get turned away.
So we want to see you there.
Get these last couple of tickets if you want to come join us.
And go to ronpaultinstitute.org slash conference or just hit our main page and you'll see a banner ad up on the right top of the page.
So looking forward to seeing all of you there.
Dr. Paul?
Very good.
And I want to thank our listeners today and our viewers most of the time for paying attention to the Liberty Report.