Political Quotes

“I would also like to briefly discuss current National Security Agency practices, including its bulk data collection programs and the implication these programs have for the privacy of Nevadans and millions of other law-abiding citizens. Due to published reports in newspapers around the world, Nevadans are well aware that the Federal Government has been collecting phone data of law-abiding citizens without their knowledge through a process known as bulk collection. These practices are mostly authorized by section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. Specifically, section 215 permits the FBI to seek a court order directing a business to turn over certain records when there are reasonable grounds to believe the information sought is relevant to an authorized investigation of international terrorism. ``Relevance'' has been found by the courts to be a broad standard that, in effect, allows large volumes of data to be collected. These same records can be combed through in order to identify smaller amounts of information that are relevant to an ongoing investigation. In other words, it has been established that section 215 allows for massive amounts of data to be collected in order to find the tiny amount of data that would solve an investigation regarding international terrorism. The court's reasoning that this is permitted is because, when submitted, it is likely that the data will produce information that will then help the FBI.…”