Civil Liberties Groups Want President Obama To Roll Back Surveillance Powers

Reuters

Politico: Trump inspires scramble on spying powers

Civil liberties groups want President Barack Obama to rein in the federal surveillance apparatus before his successor takes over.

Tech and civil liberties advocates are imploring the Obama administration to rein in the government’s massive surveillance apparatus before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, fearful he will carry out his campaign promises to register Muslims, spy on mosques and punish companies that offer Americans unbreakable encryption.

But many national security experts and former administration officials say the effort is almost certainly doomed to fail. “I don’t know how you tie the king's hands in just the weeks going out,” said Michael McFaul, a former ambassador to Russia under President Barack Obama.

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WNU Editor: So when President Obama exercised these "spying powers" .... these tech and civil liberties groups were "somewhat" quiet. Now with President-elect Trump about to assume the Presidency .... there is panic to curb these powers? I guess the problem for these groups is that they made the assumption that Hillary Clinton was going to win the Presidency .... but to everyone's surprise .... that did not exactly happen. Hence .... the push to roll back some of these "powers".