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Bachmann defends NSA spying on Americans (Credit: AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) |
WEDNESDAY, JUL 24, 2013 12:38 PM PDT
Bachmann defends NSA spying on Americans
"There’s no Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy" for phone records, Bachmann argued
BY JILLIAN RAYFIELD
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/24/amash_vs_bachmann_on_nsa_bill/Republican Reps. Justin
Amash and Michele Bachmann sparred over the NSA’s phone surveillance program, with Bachmann saying she is opposing Amash’s bill to defund it because “I believe that we need to win the War on Terror.”
The two were speaking during a monthly Conversation with Conservatives event, and Bachmann began by defending the program from arguments that it violates the Fourth Amendment.
“Individuals do not own the records, the records belong to the company,” she said. “The records are in their possession, they belong to the phone companies, they’re not the individual’s. So there’s no Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy or right to the business-record exception.”
“That’s like saying our e-mails are the property of Google,” Amash said later. “We have a problem if that’s going to be our interpretation of the Fourth Amendment.”
“All you have to do is go home to your constituents and ask them whether they think they have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their phone records or any of their other records that are stored by any third party, and they will tell you yes,” he continued.
Bachmann also argued that defunding the program will hurt America’s counter-terrorism efforts: “If we take this program and remove from the United States the distinct advantage that we have versus any other country,” Bachmann said, according to the National Review, ”it will be those who are seeking to achieve the goals of Islamic jihad who will benefit by putting the United States at risk, and it will be the United States which will be at risk.”
Terrorism is such a useful tool for the police state isn't it? -AK
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