Bill Press: Congress must rein in NSA

George W. Bush started it. Barack Obama expanded it. And last week, a federal appeals court ruled that they both broke the law.

At issue: the National Security Agency’s massive data collection of phone and Internet communications made by every single American. Bush initiated the program by executive order in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in 2001, without seeking the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, authorizing the NSA to conduct wiretaps on all phone calls between anyone in the United States and any party overseas. Then, with permission of the rubber-stamp court, Obama actually expanded the program to include snooping on every phone call made and every email or text sent by every American anywhere, anytime.

{mosads}Both Bush and Obama argued, and still argue, that the NSA’s “metadata” collection is an essential element of the war against terror, using the vacuous argument that “you can’t find the needle in the haystack without first building the haystack.” (Unless, of course, you collect so much unnecessary hay you’ll never find any needle!) 

Both administrations have also insisted that the NSA’s program is legal under Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which specifically authorizes the collection of records deemed “relevant” to a national security case only, but which they have interpreted to include collection of all records. 

That’s too big a stretch, said the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. That’s not what the statute says. “Such expansive development of government repositories of formerly private records,” wrote Judge Gerard E. Lynch, “would be an unprecedented contraction of the privacy expectations of all Americans.”

The court’s ruling follows the December 2013 report of Obama’s own commission on NSA spying, which concluded that it could not identify one single case where the collection of metadata revealed or prevented an act of terror. 

This could not come at a better time for Congress, given that Section 215, the disputed clause of the Patriot Act, is set to expire June 1. 

Congress has three options: (1) simply allowing Section 215 to expire, thereby killing the program, as favored by Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.); (2) passing the USA Freedom Act, sponsored by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), under which phone records would still be collected but would be held by providers themselves, unless the NSA requests call records pertaining to a specific national security threat; or (3) letting the NSA program continue as is, as championed by Senate Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

For anybody who values the right of privacy or respects the rule of law, rejecting McConnell’s approach should be a no-brainer. As Leahy and Lee observed after the court ruling: “Congress should not reauthorize a bulk collection program that the court has found to violate the law.”

It’s also worth noting: We’d never know what the NSA was up to were it not for documents released by former government contractor Edward Snowden. He was right. The government was acting illegally. It’s time for the Obama administration to stop treating Snowden like a criminal — and allow him to return to the United States and be recognized as the courageous and patriotic whistleblower he is. 

Press is host of “The Bill Press Show” on Free Speech TV and author of The Obama Hate Machine.