Ted Poe: “Most Americans may not be aware of what is taking place by our government. Our government is spying on Americans and I…”

“Most Americans may not be aware of what is taking place by our government. Our government is spying on Americans and I think it is in violation of the U.S. Constitution. In all of the talk that we have been having the last few weeks, we are missing one of the most basic issues that we hold dear: the right of privacy. Let me explain how it is taking place. Go back to Snowden. We didn't know about all of the spying going on in America until Snowden revealed that. I am no fan of his. I think he ought to be prosecuted, but we know information about our government spying on our Americans because of his disclosures. Let me talk about specifically the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. What is that? FISA allows our government to spy on foreign agents, which includes terrorists, primarily overseas. So what happens is the government goes to a FISA court. What is that? It is a secret court that operates in secret that issues secret warrants. I personally have an issue with that because it reminds me too much of the Star Chamber in England where they operated in secret and tried people in secret. As a former judge, I am very concerned about the loss of our Fourth Amendment right of privacy in the United States based on this law. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act courts operate in secret and issue warrants to go after bad guys overseas. So they seize that information and they put it in a database.…”