USA Freedom Act Isn't Perfect, But It's the Best We Got

 

IBDEditorials.com

Terrorism: While we respect and understand the strong constitutional objections some have to the Patriot Act, it would be a serious mistake to trash our nation's ability to eavesdrop on the terrorists who would do us harm.

The Senate has let the Patriot Act's main information-gathering activities lapse due to fears the program will lead to massive data collection on individual Americans' lives. Yes, that's a frightening prospect. But it doesn't have to be.

While some, such as Republican Sen. Rand Paul, express serious concerns about the act's compatibility with the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure, there's a way out of the current impasse.

A big reason why the Patriot Act expired is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made the mistake of trying to shove a renewal of the Patriot Act through with few or no changes at all.

But in his understandable rush to keep the National Security Agency's data-gathering activities going, he ignored until too late an improved version — the USA Freedom Act, which the House passed earlier in May.

It's not perfect, but it represents an acceptable middle ground between protecting individual rights and fully prosecuting the war on terrorism. And it's the best we now have.

The Freedom Act's main reform is to Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which allows the NSA to collect telephone and other data in bulk. The USA Freedom Act instead puts the data in the hands of a third party — the telephone companies, which in fact already own the data — and requires a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to approve transferring the information to the NSA.

It also requires a FISC to have on hand at least five legal experts in intelligence-gathering, privacy and civil liberties to advise on whether individual requests for information use are kosher.

This, along with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board set up by President Obama following the exposure of the NSA data-collection efforts by renegade former government contractor Edward Snowden, represent significant steps toward protecting our rights.

While we share the concern about Americans' privacy and civil liberties, we also understand the terrorist threat is very real. Both the Islamic State and al-Qaida have let it be known they hope to commit a major act of terrorism against the U.S.

Every day we cease in our vigilance is a day that the terrorists who would destroy our civilization and way of life can plan to do so without fear.

As of last month, the Heritage Foundation reports, there have been 68 thwarted terrorist attempts on U.S. soil. Sooner or later, the law of averages will prevail — unless we do all we can to prevent an attack.

That's why we urge the Senate to pass the USA Freedom Act. It's not perfect, but the United States is engaged in a war on terrorism, as we've said repeatedly over the years. Our enemy is a relentless and merciless fundamentalist Islam. To fail to protect Americans from this threat is a greater violation of their rights than anything the NSA might do.