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   From: MisterBlack@gop.ru   
      
   U.S. House passes spy program after baffling Trump tweets   
      
   WASHINGTON -- U.S. President Donald Trump's puzzling tweets about a key   
   U.S. spying law threw the House into temporary disarray Thursday, but   
   lawmakers ended up renewing the law -- with a new restriction on when the   
   FBI can dig into the communications of Americans swept up in foreign   
   surveillance.   
   During a hectic morning of House votes and presidential tweets, Trump's   
   national intelligence director also issued new guidance for how officials   
   can find out the names of Americans whose identities are blacked out in   
   classified intelligence reports.   
   Trump has said previous rules were far too lax and led to damaging leaks   
   about top aides, a claim fiercely contested by Democrats.   
      
   The new guidelines on "unmasking" Americans, however, were a side show to   
   the House showdown over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,   
   reauthorizing a collection program set to expire on Jan. 19. The bill   
   passed 256-164 and is now headed to the Senate. It would extend for six   
   years the program, which includes massive monitoring of international   
   communications.   
   Trump has said he'll sign the renewal, but his first tweets Thursday   
   suggested he had suddenly turned against the program, alarming   
   intelligence officials.   
   In one tweet, Trump linked the program to a dossier that alleges his   
   presidential campaign had ties to Russia.   
   "'House votes on controversial FISA ACT today,"' Trump wrote, citing a Fox   
   News headline. "This is the act that may have been used, with the help of   
   the discredited and phoney Dossier, to so badly surveil and abuse the   
   Trump Campaign by the previous administration and others?"   
   Trump then spoke by telephone with House Speaker Paul Ryan, according to a   
   Republican familiar with the call but not allowed to publicly discuss   
   private conversations.   
   And a short time later, Trump changed his tune. "This vote is about   
   foreign surveillance of foreign bad guys on foreign land," he tweeted. "We   
   need it! Get smart!"   
   Democrats pounced on his earlier criticism.   
   "This is irresponsible, untrue, and frankly it endangers our national   
   security," Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the Senate intelligence   
   committee's top Democrat, tweeted. "FISA is something the President should   
   have known about long before he turned on Fox this morning."   
   National Intelligence Director Dan Coats applauded the House action,   
   saying it was a critical step in protecting Americans and U.S. allies and   
   "I have faith that my former colleagues in the Senate will follow the   
   House's lead."   
   "Our security is not a partisan issue," said Coats, a former senator from   
   Indiana.   
   Lawmakers had begun the day readying for two votes related to the program   
   that intelligence officials call the "holy grail" because it provides   
   insight into the thinking and actions of U.S. adversaries.   
   While the program focuses on foreign targets, Americans' emails, phone   
   calls and other communications get vacuumed up in the process. Privacy   
   advocates and lawmakers from both parties have argued for years that   
   government agencies should have to get warrants if they want to look at   
   Americans' communications in the database.   
   The bill approved by the House allows the FBI to continue scanning the   
   database, using search terms, for information on Americans. But it would   
   require investigators to get probable cause warrants to view the actual   
   content in cases unrelated to national security.   
   Exceptions would apply, such as for murder, kidnapping and other crimes   
   specified in the bill. The House rejected an alternative proposal that   
   would have imposed stiffer restrictions on the FBI, requiring warrants to   
   query the database at all.   
   Rep. Adam Schiff, the House intelligence committee's top Democrat, warned   
   that stiffer restrictions would "cripple" the intelligence program. He   
   described the bill that passed as reaching a "very sensible balance."   
   However, fellow California Democrat Zoe Lofgren, who backed the defeated   
   proposal, warned the government was gathering "the content of your phone   
   calls, content of your emails, content of your text messages, video   
   messages," and searching them "for crimes that have nothing to do with   
   terrorism."   
   The vote cut across party lines, with 65 Democrats joining 191 Republicans   
   to pass the bill. Forty-five Republicans and 119 Democrats voted no.   
   There are no obvious links between the dossier Trump spoke of, which   
   includes salacious but unsubstantiated allegations against him, and the   
   reauthorization of the spying program, or between the program and Trump's   
   oft-repeated claims that the Obama administration wiretapped Trump Tower   
   during the presidential campaign.   
   Top intelligence and FBI officials and Republicans in Congress have   
   rejected the wiretapping accusations as false.   
   CNN reported last year that details from the dossier were used in part to   
   get a warrant to monitor Trump adviser Carter Page after the FBI   
   independently corroborated them. The Associated Press hasn't independently   
   confirmed the report.   
   White House aides scrambled on Thursday to explain Trump's apparent about-   
   face, saying the president was happy to see the House approve the bill.   
   "We weren't confused, but some of you were," press secretary Sarah Sanders   
   said.   
   Just as the House was voting, National Intelligence Director Coats issued   
   his own guidance on how redacted names of Americans in intelligence   
   reports can be requested and disclosed. Only top intelligence officials or   
   their designees can approve such requests, which must be justified and   
   documented.   
   Coats' policy is designed to prevent names from being disclosed for   
   political reasons, especially during presidential transitions. But   
   Republicans and Democrats dispute whether there is any need for the   
   change.   
   Republicans have alleged that Obama administration officials improperly   
   shared the identities of Trump presidential transition team members   
   mentioned in intelligence reports. Democrats say there is no evidence that   
   happened.   
      
   Donald J. Trump   
   ?   
   @realDonaldTrump   
   “House votes on controversial FISA ACT today.” This is the act that may   
   have been used, with the help of the discredited and phony Dossier, to so   
   badly surveil and abuse the Trump Campaign by the previous administration   
   and others?   
   7:33 AM - Jan 11, 2018   
    17,648 17,648 Replies   14,885 14,885 Retweets   57,591 57,591 likes   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)