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

Article author: 
John Daniel Davidson
Article publisher: 
The Federalist
Article date: 
10 April 2024
Article category: 
National News
Medium
Article Body: 

The whole point of Section 702 is to spy on Americans. Why would the intelligence community want to reform it?...

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...

In an earlier era, this warrantless spying would have been understood as a clear violation of Americans’ constitutional rights (specifically our Fourth Amendment rights). But we’re in a new era now, and the intelligence agencies have no qualms about violating our rights without pretending it has anything to do with national security...

Related

"Ukraine Aid" defense funding is a lie. It's "Seize Eurasia" offense funds. As long as "Seize Eurasia" is Blob policy, it will be trillions to Ukraine & doom to all who oppose.

 

Down with Big Brother: Warrantless Surveillance Makes a Mockery of the Constitution, by John & Nisha Whitehead, The Rutherford Institute, 17 April 2024:

What’s playing out now with the highly politicized tug-of-war over whether Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act gets reauthorized by Congress doesn’t just sell us out, it makes us slaves of the Deep State.

Read the fine print: it’s a doozy.

Just as the USA Patriot was perverted from its stated intent to fight terrorism abroad and was instead used to covertly crack down on the American people (allowing government agencies to secretly track Americans’ financial activities, monitor their communications, and carry out wide-ranging surveillance on them), Section 702 has been used as an end-run around the Constitution to allow the government to collect the actual content of your conversations (phone calls, text messages, video chats, emails and other electronic communication) without a warrant...

What most Americans don’t get is that even without Section 702 in play, the government will still target the populace for warrantless, suspicionless mass surveillance, because that’s how the police state maintains its stranglehold on power...

For all intents and purposes, we now have a fourth branch of government...

On any given day, the average American is now monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways by both government and corporate eyes and ears...

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, intelligence agencies conduct roughly 200,000 of these warrantless "backdoor" searches for Americans’ private communications each year...

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, it won’t be long before Big Brother’s Thought Police are locking us up to "protect us" from ourselves...

These 19 Republicans voted to block the spy powers bill, The Hill, 10 April 2024.

RINOS WIN – AMERICANS LOSE: FISA 702 Again Passes House by Vote of 259-128 – Here are The 117 RINOs Who Voted for Warrantless Spying on Americans. Gateway Pundit, 15 April 2024:

Here are the 117 RINOs who voted in favor of warrantless spying on the American people and President Trump’s campaign:

Aderholt Republican Alabama AYE
Allen Republican Georgia AYE
Amodei Republican Nevada AYE
Babin Republican Texas AYE
Bacon Republican Nebraska AYE
Balderson Republican Ohio AYE
Barr Republican Kentucky AYE
Bergman Republican Michigan AYE
Bice Republican Oklahoma AYE
Buchanan Republican Florida AYE
Bucshon Republican Indiana AYE
Burgess Republican Texas AYE
Calvert Republican California AYE
Carey Republican Ohio AYE
Carl Republican Alabama AYE
Carter (GA) Republican Georgia AYE
Carter (TX) Republican Texas AYE
Chavez-DeRemer Republican Oregon AYE
Ciscomani Republican Arizona AYE
Cole Republican Oklahoma AYE
Crawford Republican Arkansas AYE
Crenshaw Republican Texas AYE
De La Cruz Republican Texas AYE
Diaz-Balart Republican Florida AYE
Duarte Republican California AYE
Dunn (FL) Republican Florida AYE
Edwards Republican North Carolina AYE
Ellzey Republican Texas AYE
Emmer Republican Minnesota AYE
Estes Republican Kansas AYE
Ezell Republican Mississippi AYE
Feenstra Republican Iowa AYE
Ferguson Republican Georgia AYE
Fitzpatrick Republican Pennsylvania AYE
Fleischmann Republican Tennessee AYE
Flood Republican Nebraska AYE
Foxx Republican North Carolina AYE
Franklin, Scott Republican Florida AYE
Gallagher Republican Wisconsin AYE
Garbarino Republican New York AYE
Garcia, Mike Republican California AYE
Gimenez Republican Florida AYE
Gonzales, Tony Republican Texas AYE
Graves (LA) Republican Louisiana AYE
Graves (MO) Republican Missouri AYE
Green (TN) Republican Tennessee AYE
Grothman Republican Wisconsin AYE
Guest Republican Mississippi AYE
Guthrie Republican Kentucky AYE
Hill Republican Arkansas AYE
Hinson Republican Iowa AYE
Houchin Republican Indiana AYE
Huizenga Republican Michigan AYE
Jackson (TX) Republican Texas AYE
James Republican Michigan AYE
Johnson (SD) Republican South Dakota AYE
Kean (NJ) Republican New Jersey AYE
Kelly (MS) Republican Mississippi AYE
Kelly (PA) Republican Pennsylvania AYE
Kiggans (VA) Republican Virginia AYE
Kiley Republican California AYE
Kim (CA) Republican California AYE
LaHood Republican Illinois AYE
LaLota Republican New York AYE
Lamborn Republican Colorado AYE
Latta Republican Ohio AYE
LaTurner Republican Kansas AYE
Lawler Republican New York AYE
Lee (FL) Republican Florida AYE
Lucas Republican Oklahoma AYE
Malliotakis Republican New York AYE
McClain Republican Michigan AYE
McHenry Republican North Carolina AYE
Meuser Republican Pennsylvania AYE
Miller (OH) Republican Ohio AYE
Miller (WV) Republican West Virginia AYE
Miller-Meeks Republican Iowa AYE
Molinaro Republican New York AYE
Moolenaar Republican Michigan AYE
Moore (UT) Republican Utah AYE
Moran Republican Texas AYE
Murphy Republican North Carolina AYE
Newhouse Republican Washington AYE
Nunn (IA) Republican Iowa AYE
Obernolte Republican California AYE
Pfluger Republican Texas AYE
Reschenthaler Republican Pennsylvania AYE
Rodgers (WA) Republican Washington AYE
Rogers (AL) Republican Alabama AYE
Rogers (KY) Republican Kentucky AYE
Rouzer Republican North Carolina AYE
Rutherford Republican Florida AYE
Salazar Republican Florida AYE
Scalise Republican Louisiana AYE
Scott, Austin Republican Georgia AYE
Sessions Republican Texas AYE
Simpson Republican Idaho AYE
Smith (NE) Republican Nebraska AYE
Smucker Republican Pennsylvania AYE
Stauber Republican Minnesota AYE
Steel Republican California AYE
Stefanik Republican New York AYE
Steil Republican Wisconsin AYE
Strong Republican Alabama AYE
Tenney Republican New York AYE
Thompson (PA) Republican Pennsylvania AYE
Turner Republican Ohio AYE
Valadao Republican California AYE
Van Duyne Republican Texas AYE
Wagner Republican Missouri AYE
Walberg Republican Michigan AYE
Waltz Republican Florida AYE
Wenstrup Republican Ohio AYE
Williams (NY) Republican New York AYE
Wilson (SC) Republican South Carolina AYE
Wittman Republican Virginia AYE
Womack Republican Arkansas AYE