Hatch: Anti-terror bill privacy provisions “outdated and nonsensical”

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Author: JT Smith

Wired News reports: “In a series of votes ending at midnight Thursday, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly defeated the last-ditch efforts by Sen. Russ Feingold
(D-Wisconsin) to limit police surveillance powers.

The Senate then voted 96-1 for the unaltered USA Act, which includes the biggest eavesdropping expansion in a generation. Feingold
was the lone dissenter. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) described Feingold’s three amendments as “outdated and nonsensical.” Hatch said “current law
perversely gives the terrorist privacy rights…. We should not tie the hands of our law enforcement and help hackers and
cyber-terrorists to get away.””