FBI Director Says ‘People Should Be Suspicious Of Government’

by Sam Rolley 
As privacy advocates complained that House lawmakers have watered down a bill designed to limit government spying, FBI Director James Comey told lawmakers in the Senate Wednesday that he welcomes Americans to be suspicious of government power.
“I believe people should be suspicious of government power. I am,” Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“I think this country was founded by people who were worried about government power so they divided it among three branches,” he added.
Comey, who took over as FBI director shortly after Edward Snowden’s explosive revelations about government spying last summer, was explaining to lawmakers how his agency uses Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act-authorized spying programs.

The FBI head told Senators that his agency can tap into Internet data networks using the PRISM program to access emails, documents and photos of people under investigation. The agency also uses national security letters to track terror suspects in the United States. Comey also told lawmakers that the programs are “extraordinarily valuable” to the FBI.
The Senate hearing was an effort by Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to raise concerns about the newest version of the USA Freedom Act making its way through the House.
House lawmakers are scheduled to vote today on the bill, designed to reform the government’s surveillance tactics. The Freedom Act, as originally written, would have introduced new constraints to bulk data collection and how U.S. agencies are allowed to use programs like PRISM. Earlier this week, however, House leaders made a series of changes to the legislation, which privacy advocates say make it overly broad and ineffectual.
Leahy, who has sponsored a version of the bill in the Senate, said that he is “glad the House is poised to act on a revised version of the USA Freedom Act,” but he is disappointed that lawmakers in the lower legislative chamber stripped “important reforms” from the legislation. The Senate is set to take up surveillance reform this summer.
Harley Geiger, senior counsel at the Center For Democracy And Technology, accused House lawmakers of pushing a useless reform bill in an effort to “end the debate about surveillance, rather than end bulk collection.”

“As amended, the bill may not prevent collection of data on a very large scale in a manner that infringes upon the privacy of Americans with no connection to a crime or terrorism. This is quite disappointing given the consensus by the public, Congress, the President, and two independent review groups that ending bulk collection is necessary,” Geiger added.
The privacy advocate contends that the bill lawmakers are likely to vote on today will do nothing to stop the government’s mass, untargeted collection of Americans’ communications data.
House lawmakers have acknowledged that the once-tough anti-surveillance bill is now little more than a symbolic gesture. California Democrat Adam Schiff told The Hill that there was broad consensus among his colleagues that the bill is too weak — but he added that there is little that can be done if they want it to pass.
“[My] gut sense is that the bill overall, even with the manager’s amendment, is probably about as good as we’re going to get,” he said.