Tag Archives: Government

Major Jewish Senator Announces Opposition to Iran Nuclear Deal

Senator Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat who is in line to become the next leader of the Democrats in the senate after the retirement of Sen. Harry Reid, has announced that he will not support the nuclear deal with Iran.

“After deep study, careful thought and considerable soul-searching, I have decided I must oppose the agreement and will vote yes on a motion of disapproval,” Schumer wrote in a 1,600-word post on the website Medium.

“I will vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, nor to challenge the path of diplomacy,” he added later. “It is because I believe Iran will not change, and under this agreement it will be able to achieve its dual goals of eliminating sanctions while ultimately retaining its nuclear and non-nuclear power.”

Sen. Schumer also said he would vote to override a veto by President Obama to Congress voting to reject his Iran deal.

Schumer is the latest Jewish member of Congress to oppose the deal.  Last week, Rep. Steve Israel of New York, most senior Democrat in the House, said he would oppose the deal.  The ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Nita Lowey of New York, also said she would oppose the Iran deal.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, downplayed the announcement of Schumer and other Jewish New York congressional members whose constituents see a connection between terror attacks in New York City and Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism around the world.

“There was no one in their constituency who had not been directly impacted by the attacks of 9/11,” Mr. Schiff said of New York lawmakers, “It had a real impact in the New York Jewish community.”

Homeland Security Admits Cybersecurity Bill Could “Sweep Away Important Privacy Protections”

The Department of Homeland Security has given some powerful ammunition to opponents of a new cybersecurity bill, admitting that the bill could trample some privacy protections for citizens.

Answering a query from Minnesota Senator Al Franken, the deputy secretary of Homeland Security admitted the bill “could sweep away important privacy protections” and that the proposed legislation “raises privacy and civil liberties concerns”.

The bill in question, the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, could reach the Senate floor as early as Wednesday.

The bill would allow private companies such as Experian, which tracks information from loyalty cards at businesses to track customer movements, to expand their reach.

Section 4 of CISA states: “[a] private entity may, for cybersecurity purposes, monitor A) the information systems of such a private entity; B) the information systems of another entity, upon written consent of such other entity […] and D) information that is stored on, processed by, or transiting the information systems monitored by the private entity under this paragraph.”

The bill was introduced by California Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein who says the bill “incentivizes” the sharing of cybersecurity information.

“It responds to the massive and growing threat to national and economic security from cyber intrusion and attack, and seeks to improve the security of public and private computer networks by increasing awareness of threats and defenses,” Ms. Feinstein has stated about CISA.

Groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are calling on members to contact their Senators to vote against the bill, saying it is a violation of citizen’s rights.

One of the bill’s biggest opponents in the Senate is Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, who says the bill doesn’t promote cybersecurity but rather erases protections for many citizens.

“Right now, we are seeing the government is having trouble keeping its own data security,” Wyden told the Huffington Post. “But now Congress is setting up an arrangement where companies are going to hand over enormous amounts of additional private and personal information. That just doesn’t add up.”

Hack of Government Servers Much Larger Than First Disclosed

The attack on servers controlling data for the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is now being reported as significantly larger than initially disclosed to the public.

Government investigators say the total number of people who had data taken in the attack suspected of being carried out by Chinese hackers was roughly 21.5 million, well above the initially released estimate of 4 million people.

The 21.5 million includes many non-government employees after the initial report claimed that it was only government workers who were at risk.

“If an individual underwent a background investigation through OPM in 2000 or afterwards … it is highly likely that the individual is impacted by this cyber breach,” OPM’s statement read.

Republicans in Congress were calling on the President to replace OPM Director Katherine Archuleta.

“It has taken this administration entirely too long to come to grips with the magnitude of this security breach — a breach that experts agree was entirely foreseeable. Americans who serve our country need to be able to trust that the government can keep their personal information safe and secure,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement.

Jason Chaffetz, the head of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, called on the President to not only fire Archuleta but also Chief Information Officer Donna Seymour.

“Their negligence has now put the personal and sensitive information of 21.5 million Americans into the hands of our adversaries. Such incompetence is inexcusable,” Chaffetz, a Republican, said Thursday in a statement.

Supreme Court Upholds ACA Subsidies

The Supreme Court has upheld by a 6-3 decision a key provision of President Obama’s signature healthcare law by saying that tax subsidies are Constitutional even though the law does not specifically say that federal subsidies can be issued in states with no state healthcare exchanges.

“After more than 50 votes in Congress to repeal or weaken this law, after a presidential election based in part on preserving or repealing this law, after multiple challenges to this law before the Supreme Court, the Affordable Care Act is here to stay,” Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.

“Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” Roberts wrote in the court’s decision, adding that nationwide availability of the credits is required to “avoid the type of calamitous result that Congress plainly meant to avoid.”

“In this instance,” he wrote, “the context and structure of the act compel us to depart from what would otherwise be the most natural reading of the pertinent statutory phrase.”

The decision was the second time in three years that the Supreme Court has ruled against major challenges to the Affordable Care Act.

Justice Antonin Scalia said: “We really should start calling the law SCOTUScare,” Scalia said. SCOTUS is the acronym for the Supreme Court of the United States. “This court has no free-floating power to rescue Congress from its drafting mistakes.”

Hackers Stole Data On Every Federal Employee

The hack of government servers by a group of suspected Chinese hackers is significantly worse than initially reported.

The national president of the American Federation of Government Employees revealed that the hack released information for every federal employee to the unknown hackers.

“Based on the sketchy information OPM (Office of Personnel Management) has provided, we believe that the Central Personnel Data File was the targeted database, and that the hackers are now in possession of all personnel data for every federal employee, every federal retiree, and up to one million former federal employees,” J. David Cox said in the letter dated Thursday.

The government had admitted the breach was the largest in government history and reached as many as four million employees.

Now Cox has revealed that the Social Security numbers, military records, addresses, birth dates, pay histories, health insurance and pension information of all government employees were at the mercy of the hackers.

The White House has refused to name China as the source of the hacking but several senators including Senator Harry Reid and Senator Susan Collins have said the attack came from China.

Chinese Hackers Suspected In Attack on Federal Government Systems

As many as four million employees could have their personal information compromised in what some U.S. officials have called “the biggest breach ever of the government’s computer networks.”

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the breach saying that at the beginning of May hackers had violated the systems of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the Interior Department.

“Protecting our Federal employee data from malicious cyber incidents is of the highest priority at OPM,” OPM Director Katherine Archuleta said in a statement. “We take very seriously our responsibility to secure the information stored in our systems, and in coordination with our agency partners, our experienced team is constantly identifying opportunities to further protect the data with which we are entrusted.”

Sen. Susan Collins told the Associated Press investigators believe the hack came from China.

Collins called the attack “yet another indication of a foreign power probing successfully and focusing on what appears to be data that would identify people with security clearances.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) intrusion system detected the hack, although many files were copied before the system alerted officials.

“DHS is continuing to monitor federal networks for any suspicious activity and is working aggressively with the affected agencies to conduct investigative analysis to assess the extent of this alleged intrusion,” A DHS statement read.

Netanyahu Tells U.S. Senator ISIS Should Be Fought; Iran Stopped

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy and said that while ISIS needs to be fought, Iran needs to be stopped in their nuclear program.

“We shouldn’t give Iran a path to nuclear weapons and billions of dollars to pursue aggression because of ISIS. ISIS should be fought; Iran should be stopped,” Netanyahu said.

“As horrific as ISIS is, once Iran acquires nuclear weapons, it will be a hundred times more dangerous and more destructive than ISIS,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu spoke to the Senator about the nuclear negotiations that have resumed with Iran.

“I see no reason to rush to a deal, and certainly not a bad deal that paves Iran’s path to the bomb, but also fills Iran’s coffers with tens of billions of dollars to pursue its aggression throughout the Middle East and around Israel’s borders,” Netanyahu said.

Cassidy, who defeated incumbent Mary Landrieu in a runoff election last year, has been a staunch supporter of Israel during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kentucky Senator Filibusters Over NSA Bulk Collection Procedures

“There comes a time in the history of nations when fear and complacency allow power to accumulate and liberty and privacy to suffer.”

With those words, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul took to the Senate floor for an eleven hour unofficial filibuster to call out the dangers of the Patriot Act’s allowing the NSA to collect information about the phone calls of all Americans.

It marked the second time Paul had used the filibuster to bring attention to what he feels are the NSA’s illegal methods for collecting information on Americans.

The Patriot Act allows the government to collect “metadata” of every call made on American phones.  While the government does not collect the actual content of the calls, the government knows who is on the phone calls and can track who an American is speaking with and for how long they speak.

The sections of the Patriot Act that allow for the bulk collection of the data expires on June 1 and while Republicans leaders in the Senate want to allow it to continue, the Senate is voting on a House-passed bill that removes the NSA authorization to collect bulk data versus a system that will allow surveillance only if a judge approves a specific request.

The Senate is scheduled to vote on whether to allow the bulk collection of American’s phone records to continue before Memorial Day.

House Speaker Threatens To Withdraw Military Authorization To Fight ISIS

House Speaker John Boehner is threatening to have the House of Representatives stop the President from receiving military authorization to continue the air campaign against the Islamic terrorist group ISIS.

“The president’s request for an authorization of the use of military force calls for less authority than he has today. I just think, given the fight that we’re in, it’s irresponsible. This is why the president, frankly, should withdraw the authorization of use of military force and start over,” Boehner told reporters.

The announcement by Boehner comes after the Islamic terrorist group overran the Iraqi city of Ramadi, leading to major criticism of the administration’s plan to not use any ground troops to stop the terrorist advance.

Other members of Congress, however, are not ready to withdraw the authorization to continue the fight against the terrorists.

“I think we’re at risk of losing our institutional power to authorize and conduct war, so the stakes here constitutionally are much greater than the issue itself,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., told CBS.  “I’m not critical of the speaker and I would like a different kind of resolution, but I think the best way to get there is to simply start acting.”

The White House was critical in their response to the news Congress may not reauthorize their efforts against ISIS.

“At some point, it has to be the responsibility of the speaker of the House to do his job and for members of Congress to do their job. And we have not seen members of Congress, and we certainly have not seen the speaker of the House do his job when it comes to this specific matter,” Earnest said, according to Voice of America.

French Government Approves New Surveillance Policies

The French parliament has passed a law that would strengthen intelligence services saying that the changes would improve their ability to fight Islamic extremists.

The law passed 438-86.  The bill was written three days after the Islamic attacks in Paris in January that left 17 people dead.  Socialist government leaders say the new bill takes into account changes in technology.

Critics of the bill say that it is an extension of mass surveillance that further increases the government’s infringement on the personal freedom of citizens.

The focus is on the government now being allowed to collect massive amounts of metadata that would detail the times and places that citizens visit during their day.  Similar to the collection of data that was exposed being done by the NSA in the USA.