**BUMPED**
The authority for the United States government to capture the electronic records of all Americans without warrant falls under the auspices of FISA-702. Reauthorization of the current authority is being debated. This is a deep walk into why this issue is so important to our government.
Having researched almost every aspect to the construct and the argument, I am confident FISA-702 authority underpins a much bigger, quasi-constitutional justification for the collection of U.S. citizen metadata. Without the 702 authority the legal justification for the apparatus of surveillance no longer exists. It really is that simple.
It is not the just the illegal searching of the NSA database that presents the issue, although that aspect has received the majority of attention, the capture itself violates the Fourth Amendment. The only way the government can justify the capture of U.S. Citizen data is if there is some quasi-constitutional or national security reason for it. That’s where FISA-702 comes in.
Take away “702” search authority, and the data collection argument collapses. Any “incidental” search of the database then loses any plausible legal justification. 702 is the camel’s nose under the privacy tent that forms the baseline for all data records to be intercepted, stored and ultimately available for review.
♦ Only one legal case has ever pushed into the sphere of challenging this unconstitutional exploitation. A 2025 decision in the U.S. v. Hasbajrami in Brooklyn, New York, where Eastern District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall identified the misuse of FISA-702 “backdoor searches” regarding defendant, Agron Hasbajrami.
Hasbajrami plead guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to a terrorist organization, alleging that he intended to travel to the Federally Administered Tribal Area of Pakistan, where he expected to join a terrorist organization, receive training, and ultimately fight against U.S. forces and others in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, after his guilty plea, while he is serving time in prison, prosecutors admitted some of the evidence against him came as a result of privacy violations, unlawful FISA-702 searches.
Hasbajrami sought to have the evidence against him thrown out on 4th amendment grounds (fruit of the poisoned tree) and withdraw his guilty plea. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied Hasbarjami’s blanket evidence suppression motion for the exclusion of all FISA Section 702 collection in his case but did not weigh in on whether the warrantless Section 702 database queries were constitutional, instead remanding the case back to Judge Hall for a review of that question.
Judge DeArchy Hall received the case again and reviewed all of the government motions against the request to suppress the evidence. What results is a very well-constructed explanation and opinion of how FISA-702 was misused in the case [SEE 60-pg Opinion HERE].
The judge determined that U.S. government officials did factually violate the technical rules and procedures for the use of FISA-702 searches, and the DOJ should have gone to court to obtain a warrant to look at Hasbajrami’s private communication.
In essence, yes, the 4th amendment protections of Hasbajrami were violated. However, the issue of overturning the resulting evidence becomes a matter of legal distinction.
The defendant, who admitted guilt (twice) did not claim the evidence was a result of misuse or a wrongful approach in searching the NSA’s library, from which FISA-702 search results are determined (a structural flaw in the defense motion). Instead, the defendant filed a suppression motion on the issue of his 4th amendment rights being violated.
The judge opinion holds that the FBI’s Section 702 queries violated the Fourth Amendment; however, the court ultimately denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the resulting evidence on separate grounds.
The value in the ruling by Judge Hall, is a few fold:
First, it is an excellent review of the FISA-702 origin and all of the constitutional arguments that surround the controversial law.
Second, the ruling clearly shows that FISA-702 searches are currently being used unlawfully and continually by government officials.
Third, the ruling clearly shows how “backdoor” 702 searches are violations of the Fourth Amendment. [Albeit in this case, of no value to the argument put forth by Hasbajrami.]
[SEE CASE RULING HERE]
The ruling essentially underpins the reality that government officials are using their access to the complete library within the NSA collection and storage database to conduct searches of U.S. communication that removes the constitutional protections of the 4th amendment.
Mr Agron Hasbajrami was ensnared by this surveillance process and admitted his guilt thereafter.
However, the issue is not Hasbajrami’s intent, or even his guilt. The issue is this constant surveillance state, the metadata library and the tens-of-millions of searches that are done on the private papers of American citizens. In essence we have a domestic surveillance state looking for suspect people who are operating against the interests of government.
Do not forget, now we have over 10,000 log-in portals with access to the NSA database, including an FBI workstation at the DC office of the Perkins Coie law firm that ties into the NSA database {GO DEEP}. Perkins Coie is a national security contractor with the DOJ and FBI .
Mr. Hasbajrami was caught wanting to join a terrorist organization. However, as we have witnessed in the reality of the J6 roundup, a “terrorist organization” may well be defined as your local “patriot group”, “parent’s advisory committee” or designated “anti-vaxxers.”
♦ The Fourth Amendment aspect to the ‘warrantless’ government capture of American citizen records has never been fully argued in court; the modern definitions are opaque, and the govt has a vested interest in retaining the untested status quo. The last thing the executive and legislative branches of government want is a valid 4th Amendment privacy case to reach the Supreme Court.
The Intelligence Community (IC) has told Congress, particularly the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, that all hell will break loose if they don’t reauthorize full electronic surveillance of Americans.
Congress has historically been scared of the “seven ways from Sunday” IC.
However, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard slowly began to change things; specifically change things as they pertain to the domestic use of intelligence agencies.
According to intelligence experts, Speaker Johnson and most Republicans believe the IC justification. I do not buy this argument, because too much recent evidence exists showing how Congress is aware how this metadata capture is being continually exploited.
The only way to really test congressional knowledge is to question them. No one is questioning them. The congressional position is willful blindness.
The IC argument is: we have let thousands of terrorists into the country through the southern border crisis. They say: “we need to monitor terrorists, and if you take away the 702, the foreign terror cells will activate and start killing us all. Do you want that blood on your hands?” You cannot take away surveillance tools.
The DC conversation is, “Ok, we’ll reauthorize it, but you cannot use it against us – and all the sex parties and perverted stuff we do when no one is around; you must promise to keep our secrets hidden“… Then, just like the 2024 reauthorization, they exempt themselves.
The IC agree to accept a reauthorization that exempts Congress. The IC keep the process – just promise not to use it against Congress. This outlook is similar to what we saw in the CR bill extension that included text forbidding the FBI from seeking search warrants against Senator’s telecommunications.
If you ask me why, I now take the position that FISA-702 is the gateway to the massive surveillance system being put into place using Real ID and the AI facial recognition software provided by Palantir (CIA exploit). In essence, the gateway that allows the full-scale surveillance state, is opened by the prior authorization of FISA-702 that negates any 4th Amendment protection.
All of the surveillance mechanisms being updated and enhanced by AI search and capture, come from the IC being allowed to exploit the NSA database. That same database access is the targeting mechanism for FISA-702. If warrantless searches of the NSA database were stopped, the Palantir/IC and Tech Bro collaboration could hit a brick wall. The significance of this FISA-702 issue is much bigger than most can appreciate.
There is still no warrant requirement in the newest version of the FISA (702) reauthorization bill as proposed [SEE HERE]. The new modifications are only nine pages, and I previously recommended all those interested review the language.
The House proposal was originally for a three-year extension of 702 with a new structural compliance report process requiring the FBI to submit a monthly report to the Civil Liberties Protection Officer (CLPO) within the office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Essentially, the ODNI becomes the compliance auditor for how the FBI uses the process.
The CLPO reviews the names and summaries of intents that have been searched through the use of FISA (702) as submitted -monthly- by the FBI. If there are any violations or concerns the CLPO notifies the Intelligence Community Inspector General for investigation. Both the CLPO and the ICIG report to the ODNI (Tulsi Gabbard, currently).
“The Inspector General of the Intelligence Community shall investigate each query referred … to determine whether the query constitutes a violation of laws, rules, or regulations or an abuse of authority.” It’s another layer of compliance review intended to stop search abuses within the database that is held and maintained by the NSA and U.S. Cyber Command.
Here’s the issue with that part: The FBI can only submit the names that were searched if they are aware of them. Meaning, the FBI doesn’t maintain the audit trail, so the FBI only knows who was searched using 702 based on the FBI ‘searcher‘ reporting their search.
This compliance process doesn’t address unlawful database searches that are not reported because they are unknown to the FBI compiling the report.
The NSA and Cyber Command would still need to be monitoring and auditing the searching of the NSA database; and those searches may, or may not, be done by FBI officials who are filling out reports telling the DNI of their activity.
If a non-FBI person is abusing the database; or if an FBI agent simply doesn’t report his search; that/those search(es) would not show up on the monthly report to be delivered to the CLPO. Hence, how would the Civil Liberties Protection Officer even know?
That layer of compliance just doesn’t make sense.
If this audit process was going to be a compliance review, then the report should come from the NSA/Cyber Command, not the FBI. And the NSA/Cyber Command could simply provide the audit trail to the Civil Liberties Protection Officer (DNI) monthly.
This could even be done today, without any FBI involvement whatsoever.
The simple fact that congress is putting the FBI into the compliance loop tells me that congress is trying to maintain a system that can be exploited for unlawful or unauthorized searches.
FINAL THOUGHT – This contextual information has begun penetrating Washington DC stakeholders. A non-pretending review of the history behind the FISA(702) issue is enough to make a person pause. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is one of the reasons why SSCI Chairman Tom Cotton and SSCI Vice-Chairman Mark Warner are both in a hurry to see Tulsi Gabbard depart and the ODNI revert back to being their ally.
~ Support CTH Mission Here ~
Any collection of a US citizen’s metadata by government without a warrant is unconstitutional. The most disturbing part of this is how it can be abused without any legitimate justification. I would like to know how all the metadata is used outside of any legal justification. If they followed the law and severely limited access to legitimate legal professionals using it as truly intended it would be easier to identify abuses. But in the digital age I question if this is even possible.
Would it still be unconstitutional if its collection was legally based on terms of service on devices, software, etc?
If you understand contract law, user agreements are filled with weak and shoddy tactics which in a serious court could be successfully challenged as non-biding. From informed consent to age of consent as well as plain language issues to intellectual property theft. You pay for a device, the data, and yet providers and equipment manufacturers can sell everything online about you without your legal informed consent and profit on it while you are funding it. You aren’t even informed of who has access to your information and if breached, good luck funding forensics to find the perpetrators. Many questionable and preventable practices.
Like my 6-10 Medicare part C phone calls daily causing me to never answer my home phone. I rely on its answering machine.
This is a HUGE problem for me. I have been bombarded all year. I turned on the second or third tier of filtering available on my cell phone. I am on the do not call list with the Federal government or the state. I always look for any potential spam/etc filter notification before I swipe right. They are relentless. My block list has exploded. There are weeks where my list of spam calls exceeds 5 and my list of real calls is zero. And, yes, they are all playing the medicare part C game. They usually don’t let it go to voice mail, 90% of those are still legitimate.
Anybody that knows me…also knows I don’t listen to voicemails…
Public private partnership thingy…gives the delay…
Doge needs to be on this.
Not unconstitutional but the question is: Do contract law support how user agreements are written.
No. That 50 page agreement we all click to “OK” to enable your new TV is authorizing commercial surveillance -bezel camera and voice command (room audio), which is then commercial data the government can just buy.
I just turned down a free gift of a 65″ TV. What I have is plenty wide for my current viewing habits which are little to none per week. So, this TV isn’t taking pictures, but it might be listening to the dog bark when its on.
Once data brokers aquire your personal information, it becomes a never ending nightmare.
And you are paying for them to profit off of your property. In an honest arrangement a user needs to give informed consent for data collection according to legal standard annd paid a portion of their profits. Otherwise, data mining is theft and also mirrors stalking statutes.
Why not ask permission from users before collecting their data and inform them of who purchased it?
Icogni.
Is that an available option on the TV? Radio? Auto?
It’s not as safe an option as its advertised to be. In other words, do not rely on it for legal protection if one is pursuing any type of fraud/illegal action, do that stuff, if one must offline entirely.
It’s a huge security risk for all of your digital transactions.
Identification is possible, to a degree, via login and nonstop auditing of access to various digital resources. This is actually a product of the digital age, and it is an essential, seriously mandatory requirement of all government-approved computer systems. (If a computer system does not have government approval via mechanics of the Computer Security Act of 1987 (et al), it must not be used as a government resource of any kind.)
“To a degree” comes in if there is use of a shared login (which would be a violation of the 1987 Act), or automated processes which produce analog results (e.g., paper) that can be viewed without individual accountability. Etc, etc, whatever. And I think we all know that illegal exceptions exist and are used all the time, and that there are more “whatever” cases than expendable peons like us will ever be aware of.
The cat is near impossible to get back in the bag once it is out. Should never be allowed out. Politicians and others who favor this should be eliminated from government as they are evil!
Therein lies the rub. Name me one politician who was voted out of office for allowing digital data collection and sale?
You won’t fine one, because We The People are fat and lazy. We seldom pay ANY attention to what a politician does or says until a few weeks before an election…if even then.
In Illinois, Mike Madigan might have disagreed…while he is enjoying ‘Club Fed’…
Not true, if the government can commercially buy the data. This was not a concept envisioned by the 4th, highly doubt SCOTUS will ride to the rescue, unless you subscribe to a John Turley thought experiment about magical British elves on shoulder 24/7. SCOTUS has already ruled that the ‘cordless phone’ (AKA YOUR LAND LINE) has ‘no reasonable expectation of privacy’ ergo no warrant required, your bank records, etc. And don’t believe for one second this is ‘meta data’ BS – it’s everything – your conversations, location, your reactions watching TV, your mouse overs – yes this is thing. From my read 702 is the warrantless data mining operation, but the collection loop hole would still exist on several grounds.
Of course, it is everything. It’s just the meta data has lower standards for access by the various agencies. Unfortunately, the meta data is not nearly as cumbersome as perceived. They are using meta data to track you online now instead of cookies. The only browser I know of that makes you semi-obscure on-line is Brave, there may be others, it’s just the only one I know that fakes what’s given to the sites you visit.
Yes, and sites like ESPN and other streaming sites won’t work on it. I have to switch to Edge when I want to watch a sports program. The collection is mandatory. I know, I don’t have to watch, but they got me by the short hairs when it comes to sports! :-p
What gets me is when wifey and are talking about a new mattress and then suddenly mattress ads come up on our browsers!!! Creepy.
Wait, can it be used against them now that it was politicized.
Rumor has it that Mark Warner has asked Joey Biden where one get the best deal on Depends.
“Only one legal case has ever pushed into the sphere of challenging this unconstitutional exploitation. A 2025 decision in the U.S. v. Hasbajrami in Brooklyn, New York, where Eastern District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall identified the misuse of FISA-702 “backdoor searches” regarding defendant, Agron Hasbajrami.”
You can bet that the “judge” was torn between protecting the institutions or providing a ruling favorable to one of the left’s “protected classes”.
I’m grateful for the courageous, patriotic senators who voted against reauthorization (source DailyCaller): Mike Lee, Josh Hawley, John Kennedy, Rand Paul, Rick Scott, Tommy Tuberville, Eric Schmitt
God save the Republic
Bernie Moreno has sure been a disappointment
I admit I was shocked when our President said on TS that he wanted reauthorization of this. I tend to agree with Sundance that it should end.
I’m not shocked. He is strategically using the existing law to conquer true terrorism in my opinion. I also believe it has been used more for political sabotage of innocent people prior to our current President. I don’t like how the issue of surveillance of citizens with zero contact with foreign entities are being targeted and this being ignored by our government. I would also be interested in knowing exactly how many crimes have been prevented by this law. I believe our President will use it as it was designed. The main issue at hand needs to be how it was abused prior President Trump being elected.
I agree completely, and would assume that there are many traitors in the hot seat and cases being constructed right now by the Trump team using FISA-702 searches against our *real* enemies for a change.
Congress needs these searches to continue their insider trading and other political and financial schemes. The only reason they would suddenly end them now is certainly not due to a crisis of conscience, because we know they absolutely have no conscience.
It is obvious that pressure is now building from DC insiders who are anxious about being exposed for their TREASON. First we’ll hang the traitors by their own petards and then we’ll let the Supreme Court have at it after justice has been done.
If I remember correctly, Bill Binney had a way to do the search properly, not needing a warrant at all.
They turned him down, after they went after him!
SPIT!!!
He had an entirely different methodology that didn’t collect & store data.
Course that wasn’t what the Son of a Spook wanted at all.
s this whats happening in America and is why?
Deuteronomy 28:43-44 “The foreigners [aliens] who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail”. [1]
The Metaphor: In biblical terms, the “head” represents authority, leadership, and prosperity. The “tail” represents subservience, a lack of control, and being at the bottom. [1, 2]
The Blessing Counterpart: Conversely, in verse 13, God promises that if the people obey, “The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God… you will always be at the top, never at the bottom
No. This does not apply to America.
Deuteronomy 27 was where the Israelis were instructed that, after crossing the Jordan and arriving at Mt. Ebal, they were to set up the 12 whitewashed stones with the accursed violations of the law on them (not the 10 commandments). Moses had repeatedly warned them that they would violate the covenant from Leviticus 26.
Deuteronomy 28 is where they were again told they were to stand on Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim and renew the covenant from Mt. Horeb (Leviticus 26). Deuteronomy 29-32 are Moses again explaining that they would violate that covenant, be repeatedly punished by God for violating it (with the worst punishments being repeated episodes of servitude of the nation, desolation of their cities, desolation of the sanctuary) in increasing intensities until they ultimately repent.
Moses had already instructed them about this in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 11.
Matthew 21:33-46 is a restatement of this covenant by Jesus.
It is referred to as a covenant several places in scripture.
They obey Moses’ instruction in Joshua 4 and Joshua 8.
Allowing The FISA-702 and secret Courts are proof exactly what the Constitution and our privacy means to the Government and exactly what a disgrace allowing them to swear an Oath they have no intention of upholding.
Catching terrorists was always a Bullshit excuse for implementation of any and all government intelligence programs.
Opaque is an apt word
The Daily Mail is reporting Susie Wiles in on the verge of quitting.
..about the time….hopefullly all non MAGA /lukewarm will leave before 07/04……
Wiles wrote Friday on X:
After an accomplishment filled week by President Trump, I have the pleasure of reading a piece of Friday fiction, courtesy of the Daily Mail.
To be crystal clear, I am not going anywhere. I am honored and proud to serve President Trump, proud of our team and remain fully committed to advancing his agenda on behalf of the American people.
Some in the media have spent a decade trying to manufacture drama around President Trump and people who work for him. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.
See you Monday.
OK. Good luck to her then.
She says she’s staying. Too bad. She’s uniparty and she needs to get the boot.
She brought Pam Bondi on board as AG. They were prior business associates.
That’s enough for me to think Wiles doesn’t want to advance President Trump’s agenda. She wants to hinder it.
Or she just plain old doesn’t understand what the movement is about and hasn’t really tried AKA Bubble dweller.
Yay!
Whether it’s reauthorized or not makes no difference. These criminals will log into the system and pull down data regardless. Since when did they obey the law?
This. The proof is in all of this sort of illegalities that have already occurred, especially since the Obama years.
FISA was created by the U.S. Congress based on the recommendations of the Senate’s Church Committee, which was convened in 1975 to investigate illicit activities and civil rights abuses by the federal intelligence community.
How’d that work out?
See warrants requested vs approved list by year here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court
On the myth of CONgressional oversight of intel agencies:
April 24, 2007
Amazing Statement Of Congressional Impotence By Senate Intelligence Chairman Jay Rockefeller
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/001436.html
Excerpt:
Charles Davis, a freelance reporter, briefly interviewed Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) last Wednesday. Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, made this startling statement about how the U.S. government really functions:
DAVIS: I wonder if you’ve heard some of these news reports that the Bush administration is backing extremist groups in Pakistan to launch attacks against Iran? Are you familiar with those news reports?
ROCKEFELLER: I’ve seen no intelligence that would verify that.
DAVIS: Reports quote administration officials as saying this is going on and it’s being done in a way to avoid oversight of the Intelligence Committee. Is there any way—
ROCKEFELLER: They’ll go to any lengths to do that, as we’ve seen in the last two days [during hearings on FISA].
DAVIS: Is there anything you could do in your position as Chairman of the Intelligence Committee to find answers about this, if it is in fact going on?
ROCKEFELLER: Don’t you understand the way Intelligence works? Do you think that because I’m Chairman of the Intelligence Committee that I just say I want it, and they give it to me? They control it. All of it. All of it. All the time. I only get, and my committee only gets, what they want to give me.
The government needs to roll with the tide, for the enterprise is at risk. Too many people have seen …
Acknowledge that surveillance POWERS are POWERS. Transferred unlawfully to the Blob, this is a transfer of POWER away from the people and their reps into the blob.
These searches should end.
Will they?
It’s unlikely IMO.
Agreed.
…and hit my smoke.
The lawless don’t follow laws anyway. Law or no law they will find ways to surveil.
This whole thing has gotten so out of hand That you can’t even close one bank account and move the money to a new account at the same bank with out answering a multitude of personal questions…like, do you own your home , how long have you lived there…..then run a damn credit report on you. Try cashing a check for a few thousand for cash…third degree. Hey it’s MY money. I hate all of this and it should stop.
Ask Larry F….. Those “foreign” enemies will try and destroy those collection centers with drones. Sounds like an idea to me. Too bad our side follows the law but I can imagine there will come a time when we realize we are the only ones following the law.
Even without a flashlight, I found a few housekeeping items while following the source trail. 😄
* In this original article, one image appears twice.
* In the 2023 FISA article, the April 27, 2023 hearing transcript that contains the Gaetz–Horowitz 3.4M / ~30% / 10,000 exchange may be worth adding as a source:
https://documents.pclob.gov/prod/Documents/EventsAndPress/3385752c-0e06-442d-9b6d-73aa0c1a3fda/House%20Judiciary%20Subcommittee%20hearing%20%28April%2027%2C%202023%29.pdf
* In the GO DEEP article, the Collyer source link appears misdirected to Judicial Watch but it’s another topic?, and the Rumble link appears dead.
Still reading, so this is just a friendly heads-up.
The worm is turning; and the hunters become the hunted?
This has been an unlawful transfer of POWER from the American People to an unelected bureaucracy.
This is interesting, Steven Miller, President Trump‘s top guy, is saying something very different re FISA, would love to read comments/rebuttals.
https://x.com/stephenm/status/2063077230230601893?s=61
I like Stephen Miller, but I think he’s wrong on this. I think there are very few people who know more about FISA 702 than Sundance. And on this subject, I’ll take Sundance’s word over Miller’s.
@Constance-If Stephen Miller is saying one thing about the 702 Bill it should be its illegal, PERIOD.
Unless…………………………………. The language consists of a prohibition of internal surveillance within the Contiguous United States.
I fixed it!
There……… See how easy that was?
Good job. Now please get Miller to get that in there stat :).
Stephen Miller is accurately describing the original law. He is pointing out how it has been distorted to justify manipulative uses imo.
Hope it ends but I wouldn’t wager on it happening. DC is such a cesspool. I live in the area and very rarely set foot in the place.
“The IC argument is: we have let thousands of terrorists into the country through the southern border crisis. They say: “we need to monitor terrorists, and if you take away the 702, the foreign terror cells will activate and start killing us all. Do you want that blood on your hands?” You cannot take away surveillance tools.”
My argument is that the southern border “crisis” was a deliberate act used, among other things, to justify the continuation of the FISA-702. How about this: We rid ourselves of both the foreign invaders and the FISA-702? And it’s hard to call them invaders when it looks more like they were brought in by invitation via open borders. Their presence in our country and the FISA-702 are both intentional.
I just wonder when are the people going to stand up against our “rights” be decimated one after the other. Been going on for 50 years been especially egregious since 2001. What would you call our form of government, as of late ,cause it certainly is not a Republic.
“Essentially, the ODNI becomes the compliance auditor for how the FBI uses the process.”
Well, at least until some FBI flunky decides they can’t disclose a search effort…due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Seven Republicans vote against FISA extension after bipartisan plan blows up
https://archive.is/Qziah
If 702 was an honest constitutional law and law abiding government employees were upholding constitutional rights of the citizens as they took an oath to do, then warrantless collection of data would not be happening. I do know data mining for a few select companies is extremely profitable according to AI research. Is anyone aware if our government profits off our data? I have no evidence this has ever occurred but it’s a possible motive to collect all of our data even without probable cause and a warrant.
This all bothers me and knowing if “our” own government can do this almost any other entity can as well and they would be even more outside any controls. . .
And they do and most people are not even aware this occurs and how their data is used!
JMO but I have the sneaking suspicion that certain IC people use the many spy tools to hack and steal.
If they do away with FISA-702, what will they ever do with all those “data centers” they’ve built to store every single electronic trace of communications made by the citizens whose tax dollars they extort?
The data never stops. Cloud services, digital transactions, and so on. It will flow despite what the government decides.
It’s not just citizens but businesses as well.
Data mining is a BIG & profitable because it’s used for AI, marketing, behavioral research political campaigns, medical research, etc. Once online users are aware of this practice it can cause people to alter their behavior, possibly tainting the research’s value & accuracy. When used as an AI oversight system identifying errors or possible fraud it can alter behavior too for the benefit of taxpayers.
Any laws repugnant to the constitution are null and void. Using 702 for mass data collection appears to be unconstitutional and used for purposes not related to national security. Common sense would dictate mass data collection is susceptible to abuses and a National Security risk for citizens. The controversy over 702 appears to be mostly concerning how it’s been misused and misinterpreted for manipulative reasons rather than surveillance on foreign lands where the bill of rights is a non-issue.
Congressional Members are mostly lawyers and fools. To think an illegal process will exempt them from scrutiny is the height of arrogance and stupidity.
Desperate people do foolish things and believe they are effective and powerful! Bless their little hearts. 🤣 But it’s finally getting people to pay attention to these tactics.
Bingo…..they are that stupid. But I have to say for PT or the select group in House and Senate to continue to believe Intelligence briefings is also stupid.
The fact that an individual’s motion to suppress under the 4th Amendment was denied because his brief didn’t include a 702 notation is utter legalese bullshit. This NSA claim of “national security” is nothing but a pure contrivance. I didn’t hear anyone from that agency calling for the southern border to be shut down under Obama or Biden. The IC is building a coffin board by board, nail by nail for its perceived enemies once Trump is gone. Read the tea leaves … .
But they will anyway…
“The simple fact that congress is putting the FBI into the compliance loop tells me that congress is trying to maintain a system that can be exploited for unlawful or unauthorized searches.”
Of course this is exactly what is happening. An auto generated report for all inquiries and searches, regardless of agency could be programmed and received by the ODNI…but the IC and Congress does not want this foolproof.
Seems to me all of these issues with Congress point straight to donors…..Why hasn’t “Citizens United ” been revisited by SCOTUS it was a terrible ruling. People with money and power should not be governing our country.
I read all the information above. The title of the post is “Congress is getting nervous about reauthorizing FISA 702.”
I didn’t find information on what is making Congress nervous. Especially because they plan to exempt themselves from being surveilled.
What is disturbing is that the IC doesn’t care a fig about the 4th Amendment. I think we all know that business as usual in the IC involves breaking any laws that get in their way and keeping it secret. Apparently they keep using the fear of a terrorist attack as an excuse to keep the surveillance state against innocent Americans going.
Also I don’t understand President Trump’s support for FISA 702.
President Trump of 2026 certainly isn’t the PT of 2017.
Setting aside that 702 system and the searches of the data should be eliminated, the core issue remains.
That core issue is the COLLECTION of our personal data, the recording of our transactions, the surveillance in all its myriad of methods.
Additionally, the use of other nations’ spying and collection of data (5 eyes, among others) is another huge loophole that needs to be closed.
If the data doesn’t exist, it can’t be searched or otherwise processed – and it shouldn’t exist without due cause and due process that is 100% Constitutionally sound.
The FISC is no “court.” The accused is not even there, and has no idea. The only representative is from the government. The “judge” can only rubber-stamp their request. Of COURSE they are being lied to!
And the entire concept of it, the entire concept of PATRIOT, is fundamentally unconstitutional. You are giving “authorization” to perform “illegal search and seizure” in explicit violation of the Fourth Amendment. Period. It cannot be reconciled against that single precious sentence.
There are voyeurs in this world, and in this government, who want to know everything about you, and to know that you are not aware of what they are doing. Just like those “strip search machines” at the airport.
The bottom line is the Deep State will continue to collect your data and use it against you if you step out of line.
From 2011-2016 there was a loosely fictionalized show exploring this idea entitled ‘Person of Interest.’ Kind of the Max Headroom of it’s day, without nearly as much humor. An excellent way to help visualize the concept.
I’ve seen it. It feels prophetic and it’s not the least entertaining. More like horror than sci-fi
For some reason I flash on an imaginary (?) Far Side cartoon with a Great (white) Hunter focused through a high powered scope on looking for the proverbial needle-in-a-haystack trophy (FISA) while surrounded by a myriad of readily available targets (trillions of $$$$’s of fraud perpetrated by foreigners and illegals) literally breathing down his neck………
that he is OBLIVIOUS TO……
Grad school level buffoonery .
Maybe that’s one of the many nefarious reasons for intentionally opening the borders: justify unmitigated surveillance.
Excellent article. Thank you.
Need another Tulsi-Type as next DNI
How about we “unplug” all logins to NSA database.
Create only 1 way to access NSA database… thru SCIFF at ODNI
To review it one must come to the ODNI SCIFF and sign in and be tracked.
POTUS needs to encourage Congress to re-authorize 702, specifically so that the FBI can root-out corruption in Congress. It’s the only way that he can ensure that the re-authorization gets derailed and the criminal spying stops.
Also, a mandatory 10-year prison sentence for domestic spying on US citizens (without get-out-of-jail-free statute of limitations relief) without a warrant would go a long way. This should apply to anyone doing the spying and if the spy happens to be a government employee, it should also apply to their immediate supervisor. If the spy is a civilian, then their company should loose their security clearance and government contracts for a minimum of twenty-five years.
There is no Constitutional justification for “702,” or for the “PATRIOT Act” in general. Both are in direct defiance of the Fourth Amendment. They exist only because the technical capability exists today for doing so.
As long as FISA is in existance, WHY doesn’t ANYONE use the NSA database to gather data on all the liberal NGO’s who are noe tied to Antifa and other designated domestic terror groups?
Seems to me that each AG should use his emergency authority on a case by case basis rather than subject everyone to this legislation.
When the commiecrats are in charge, FISA is a wonderful way to secure the homeland. As soon as Bill Pulte is acting DNI chief, all of a sudden FISA is horrible and can be used against American citizens. That says it all.
a few points, albeit late and no excuses from me about that tardiness.
a. foreign intelligence gathering (that is non US citizens in non USE jurisdictions) has always been legal. There is no contradiction with the constitution or any other US recognized legal issue. The US Government may spy on anyone at any time for any reason, so long as they are NOT A US CITIZEN.
b. FISA and specifically 702 have been distorted legally (fraudulently) to allow spying on US citizens or any other non US citizens ON US JURISDICTIONS.
c. for any person to argue that a renewal of the FISA authorization would paralyze the terror network surveillance is basically manufacturing a lie and a deception. See a above. That authority already exists. There is no contradiction no conflict. Terror networks can be survelled at any time at any place for any reason and there is not even a legal judge required to do any of that. Period. As long as that person is not a US CITIZEN ON US SOIL. Otherwise, anything goes.
d. the FISA court and the FISA authorization specifically the 702 is basically a Congressional approved means to erase away the requirements that a federal judge must be shown proof evidence that a crime has been committed, and this a warrant to spy can be established based on that evidence. The evidence proof of this process to gain a warrant is missing. It is also a secret court, so there are no public filing to inspect that the legal requirements are being met. And as history has proven even when the FISA courts have rubber stamped unlawful and unsubstantiated claims of criminal allegations to gain a warrant, there has been zero acountability and no one has been prosecuted for unlawful manipulations. It has become a criminal court in the literal expression of the phrase. not to go after criminals, but to become criminal itself. And apparently even the highest official who presides over this secret court, the supreme court justice himself, roberts has determined by his willingness to do absolutely nothing about it. So we are left with several critical foundational constitutional matters here:
a. the FISA court is not just weaponized but by its very nature is a criminal organization.
b. it is secret so we don’t even know the scale and scope of the kinds of violations that have occurred. We only see what finds its way from leaks or high level cases where declassification has occurred. Objectively, rationally, we must assume the number of violations are far highers and much more criminal in nature. I am of the opinion that the secret police spy state collects intelligence in order to create a no fail ATM machine. if you know secrets that no one else has access to, then you can make a fortune. it is my belief this is the number one reason why Congress authorized and will never sunset the FISA authorization. It would cut off the free money that flows in.
God Bless America
🎯 🎯 🎯
Thx 2u, know we see more clearly, “the ‘rest of the story’’”
GBY Regitiger ! … & …
GB the USA !!
F = feral Feds’
I = iniquitously illegal
S = surveillance stasi
A = arrogance agency !!!
To me, the 4th amendment argument is this:
The government breaks into your home while you’re away. They take fingerprints off of surfaces, scan every document you have, make copies of everything on your computers, write down the contents of your refrigerator, go through all your drawers and medicine cabinets, noting everything that can be observed about your sex life, your clothing size — literally everything that can be learned about you. They don’t take anything, but they have copies and files of everything.
They aren’t going to use it against you unless they “need to”. This is literally no different than living behind the Iron Curtain. But they claim they didn’t violate your 4th amendment rights because they didn’t take anything and won’t use any of the info unless they need to charge you with something.
They aren’t doing it because you are suspected of something now. But maybe sometime in the future you might be so it’s best to have all the info ready to hand without the pesky requirement of getting a warrant and coming to get it after they’ve decided you may have done something wrong.
The idea that because it’s phone calls and emails and web searches somehow makes it different is intellectually and morally bankrupt.
Yes, the 702 process needs much better oversight, needs warrants and is way too broad. When members of intelligence agencies can get away with investigating intimate partners and spouses with impunity, it goes too far. Someone could end up dead over this lack of oversight. I would go further and say that the NSA’s retention of records is far too broad and too lengthy.
If we implement Trump’s deportation plans, we would not have to rely so heavily on NSA’s information to find traitors and spies. Both, the 702 process and the NSA data collection practices violate 4th amendment rights. The government has been collecting our personal data since the telephone was invented, probably since the pony express.
There are two other huge issues with this data capture. One is security, government databases have been hacked repeatedly. It’s bad enough corporation’s do not adequately safeguard our data, but, the government must. It is national security. The current situation is bad enough, but, we are on the doorstep of two innovations that will make data security much worse.
One is AI, as these powerful engines fall into untrustworthy hands without any safeguards for any data or any person, they will cause some serious pain at scale and in depth because that capability will be enabled. Not only are the tech companies fighting tooth and nail not to have any safeguards, congress is not helping either.
The second innovation is not quite here yet, but it IS coming. It is quantum computing. When it arrives, all current computation algorithms to safeguard passwords, identification, etc. will be ineffective. Quantum computing will be able to break all the current encryption algorithms to date. It can’t break all the off-line methods, but, it will break all the on-line methods for safe guarding data. Neither government, nor corporations, nor the tech bros are even talking about addressing this. The other insidious aspect is that it may not announce itself. The encryption may be broken for days, months or years before anyone notices. When you consider how reliant corporations and individuals are on the ability of encryption to do our banking, buying and selling stocks, bonds and real estate, it is easy to imagine how devastating the impact of this will be.
We at least need to get them to decentralize all the data they have on us. It’s not as efficient as using our SSN to pull up all of our financial data, all of our on-line activity, all of our health data. With decentralized databases for all these areas, it reduces the breadth and depth of potential damage a security break can generate. AI can help pull from the different databases so its not quite as cumbersome as it has been in the past.
None of this is the focus of corporations or senators or representatives, yet. It will be though. Corporations are encountering the ability of AI to effectively spoof their suppliers already. Having NSA or any agency collect and retain all of a citizen’s data is a foolish choice because of the inability of organizations to prevent unauthorized access to that data. They should be split up geographically (by state?, county?) and across multiple disciplines. That way only some data for some citizens is impacted when the data safeguards fail.
D’ya think it’s time to rethink the value of a rogue agency lie the CIA? Just last month they finally got a CIA agent who requested and got MILLIONS of dollars worth of Gold Bullion for his personal use, on top of $Millions of other property and cash! This is NOT the patriotic OSS, this is Aldrich Ames and accomplices!
Primaty any T R E A S O N O U S SOB who voted to reauthorize 702.
The question is “who is the CIA?”. Dulles brothers were Wall Street. So who is Wall Street?
To be clear. Not re-authorizing 702 FISA will do nothing to stop the full scale spying on the American people.
Scissors. One party lets in the illegal immigration from parts of the world with terrorism (like Somalia). The other party pushes for extensions to the unconstitutional surveillance already in place by the FISA system – as a “solution” to the problem they created.
Trump is trying to act outside the scissors.
Meanwhile, illegal immigration allows Somalis to scam state funds for “learning centers” and use them to create more terror at home?
And Americans all become potential “domestic terrorists”.
An interesting note is that the initial report on the 9/11 terrorist attack stated that it was INFORMATION SHARING between agencies that was the major cause of failure to preempt the attack …. NOT LACK of INFORMATION.
Also, up to 2001 it was ILLEGAL for agencies to actually share certain classes of information as well as against the Policy of Federal Agencies.
This set up the reason for the creation of the ODNI.
The information was ALL there … just never shared nor analyzed.
Odd how all the domestic “mass murder” and “terrorist attacks” since 702 was put in place was perpetrated by actors whom “were on the radar”.
Based on that alone indicates 702 is NOT even effective nor even needed. Right??
Say it doesn’t get renewed, what makes anyone think they won’t continue with it? This gov’t has proven itself to be criminal time and time again.
Yep .. case in point … remember all the warrants and requests by the Federal Government for SOCIAL Media and Customer Data Files held by PRIVATE Companies for “Business Purposes”.
The same Businesses keeping the “for Business Purposes” data are also the ones under contract to the Federal Government to build and maintain the FEDERAL as well as STATE Level data bases.
It’s all connected “guarded” by a few “gateways”.