United States FISA Reform Failed Because The Whole Point Of Section 702 Is To Spy On Americans

DarthOne

DarthOne

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FISA Reform Failed Because The Whole Point Of Section 702 Is To Spy On Americans

thefederalist.com

The Intelligence Community Exists To Spy On Americans

The whole point of Section 702 is to spy on Americans. Why would the intelligence community want to reform it?
thefederalist.com thefederalist.com
A group of 19 Republican lawmakers on Wednesday joined with Democrats to block a bill that would have reauthorized the federal government's spying authority with a few minor tweaks. At issue is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which allows warrantless surveillance of foreigners but is also routinely used to spy on American citizens.

As it stands now, the law, which is set to expire April 19, allows U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on foreign nationals based overseas, but it also lets the FBI comb through the massive amounts of data the intelligence community collects and gather information about American citizens. These are known as "backdoor searches," and an unlikely coalition of conservative Republicans and left-wing Democrats want to change how these searches are conducted.

Specifically, they want to require that the FBI obtain a warrant before searching Section 702 data for information about Americans — a reasonable reform. The intelligence community, and the members of the House Intelligence Committee over whom they have influence, oppose this.

Why? The most straightforward answer is that the main purpose of the intelligence community's surveillance programs isn't to spy on terrorists or foreign adversaries overseas, it's to spy on American citizens. So of course the intelligence community opposes FISA reforms that would make it harder to spy on Americans.

Whatever the original justification of Section 702 was — in the wake of 9/11, the intelligence community argued that massive government surveillance capabilities were necessary to keep Americans safe from terrorist attacks — the purpose of it now is to enable the FBI to surveil Americans, especially Americans who express views and opinions the government deems to be a threat.
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More accurately: The whole point of 702 was for the Establishment to spy on its political adversaries.

This is why anyone hoping for more government regulation is a moron.

This shit, the TSA, the Patriot Act, all of it was because people were too chicken shit to just handle everything after 9/11 and let the libs cry their song of racism vs building a state of fear that people wanted to feel safe in.

Remember folks, the Patriot Act was passed pretty much while congress was holding hands and singing on the capitol steps like a choir. That wasn't a show of unity, that was a political orgy from the excitement that Americans were glad to have them shit over their rights.
 
prinCZess

prinCZess

Warrior, Writer, Performer, Perv
Frankly, even warrant requirements would be too little. The FISA court is a rubber-stamp court for any warrant request made of them, and has been...basically since it got started. That said, it would at least provide a theater of constitutionality and, perhaps more importantly for FBI/NSA/intelligence bullshittery, a paper-trail that could be followed back to individuals in the case of weird shittery happening. So the FBI couldn't get away with their 'Yeah, our 230,000 queries of the database were uhh...just mistakes by people fat-fingering the wrong button. Nothing to see here! Move along.' BS.

In regards to the reauthorization itself...Abuses should not earn agencies two years on probation. It should earn them prison sentences or, failing that, the loss of powers. The 'reform' bandied about so idealistically is a joke from the outset because the intelligence community has yet to actually receive any consequences for abuses that amount to anything.

Also worthy of particular highlight is (bipartisan) congressional hypocrisy on the matter:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), as recently as last year, voted for the exact same warrant requirement, and then said earlier this week that he opposed it. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) was more coy about his about-face, but also voted no despite his past support for identical legislation. In fact, the entire Democratic leadership, past and present, voted against the amendment. Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who had Intelligence Committee experience in the past, also reversed course and even went so far as to deliver a chilling speech on the House floor during the debate, claiming that Section 702 needed to pass because it could have prevented 9/11.
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The only 'reforms' which occurred were expansions of what 702 covered (immigrants and drug smugglers got included now) and what qualified as an electronic data provider--so an expansion of what 702 covered. Barring government from buying data to shift through without a warrant got branched off into a bill that will supposedly come next week (any betters on what happens to it? Anyone?).

I suppose there is the big reform of how the FBI's Deputy Director needs to sign-off on 702 enquiries about politicians or media organizations, and the FBI needs to tell congress-critters if their names get searched.
Because, y'know, nobility need protections like that.
 
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