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Wednesday 03 Jun 2015 - 13:08 Makkah mean time-16-8-1436
President Obama (Google image)
Washington (IINA) – U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law on Tuesday a legislation passed by Congress earlier in the day reining in the government's powers to spy on its citizens in the wake of disclosures made two years ago by former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden and the national debate he catalyzed, AFP reported.
Reversing security policy in place since shortly after the 9/11 attacks, the bill ends a system exposed by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Snowden, which allowed the agency to collect and search records of phone calls (but not to wiretap them). The search and collection was designed to identify leads on potential terrorist activity.
Passage of the USA Freedom Act, the result of an alliance between Senate Democrats and some of the chamber's most conservative Republicans, was a victory for Obama and a setback for Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
After the Senate voted 67-32 on Tuesday to give final congressional approval to the bill, Obama used his Twitter account to say he was glad it had passed. "I'll sign it as soon as I get it," the tweet said.
In a separate statement later Tuesday, Obama chided lawmakers for the "needless delay and inexcusable lapse in important national security authorities," in the days leading up to the bill's eventual passage.
"My administration will work expeditiously to ensure our national security professionals again have the full set of vital tools they need to continue protecting the country," Obama said.
Before voting, senators defeated three amendments proposed by Republican leaders after they reversed themselves and ended efforts to block it. The House of Representatives passed the measure overwhelmingly last month.
The bill halts the NSA's ability to scoop up and store metadata – telephone numbers, dates and times of calls – from millions of Americans who have no connection to terrorism. It shifts responsibility for storing the data to telephone companies, allowing authorities to access the information only with a warrant from a secret counterterror court that identifies a specific person or group of people suspected of terror ties.
AB/IINA
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