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By Jocelynn Smith, Managing Editor,  Sovereign Investor

Dear Sovereign Investor,                                                               

The USA Freedom Act has passed muster at the two standing committees in the House of Representatives and looks poised to be passed into law. But I’m left wondering if Americans are about to get burned again by the fine print.

As the first attempt at reforming National Security Agency (NSA) with legislation since the Edward Snowden revelations, the act would end the NSA’s practice of collecting information on calls made by Americans and storing them for at least five years.

That’s a good thing — in theory.

The records would remain in the hands of telephone companies. The NSA would need to apply to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), convincing the organization that someone was a terrorist before getting access to the records.

That’s a bad thing — in practice.

Gaining approval from FISC isn’t much of a public defense, because the group of 11 judges chosen by the chief justice rubber stamps nearly everything the NSA requests.

According to the Justice Department, NOT ONE of the 1,856 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches in 2012 was denied. Of course, it doesn’t hurt the NSA’s case that arguments against their applications aren’t permitted by the court.

Furthermore, when the NSA gets necessary approval, it will be permitted to trace a person’s calling patterns back two layers. In other words, the NSA can trace who the suspect called as well as whoever those people called. In addition, the NSA will now be able to collect metadata on phone users — something the agency could not do prior to this piece of legislation.

While this is a good idea when actually dealing with terrorists threatening the lives of others, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth to think about all the innocent Americans who will be caught up in the NSA’s wide net.

For every step forward we take in Congress, the country takes two steps back, trampling the rights of Americans. We’ve seen legislators slipwealth confiscation clauses into bills and it looks like the NSA has built a nice cushion into this bill.

Acting under the guise of protecting Americans, the government strengthens its hold on your rights and your wealth. It’s time to develop a plan to protect yourself and your family before our representatives vote away the last of our liberties.

Regards,
Jocelynn Smith
Managing Editor