Congress accidentally protected the American people’s liberty this week when it failed to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
Section 702 authorizes warrantless surveillance of foreign citizens. However, it has been “interpreted” by the FISA court to allow US intelligence agencies to wiretap conversations between a US citizen and a foreign target of Section 702 surveillance. The intelligence agencies can then conduct warrantless surveillance of Americans who communicate with that American.
Section 702 has been promoted to the American people by promising that the warrantless wiretapping it authorizes would be used to protect Americans from terrorism. However, Section 702 warrantless surveillance is used for investigations of non-terrorist crimes like drug war crimes and is shared with the FBI.
An additional threat to privacy is contained in Section 622 of this year’s Intelligence Authorization Act. This new provision requires the president to share with Israel intelligence related to “cybersecurity threats, terrorism, sanctions evasion, plans and intentions of state and nonstate actors, adversarial technology proliferation, missile threats, unmanned aerial systems, cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, air and space domain awareness, and other aerial threats.” Requiring the president to share intelligence with a foreign government is unprecedented and arguably violates the president’s constitutional authority as commander-in-chief. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, who is the sponsor of this bill, is the type of military hawk who usually supports giving the president absolute power in foreign and military affairs, even when the president’s actions are blatantly unconstitutional.
There is nothing in Section 622 prohibiting US intelligence agencies from giving Israel intelligence information regarding American citizens collected via warrantless wiretapping. This provision may lead to increased surveillance of Americans who are working to end to US government’s uncritical support for Israel on the grounds that they may pose a security threat to the United States or Israel.
One reason Congress did not extend Section 702 last week was controversy over President Trump’s nomination of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte as interim director of national intelligence. Some Democrats, and Republicans, objected to Pulte’s lack of experience in national security and intelligence. A reason Democrats opposed Pulte’s nomination is concern he will use the position to target the president’s political enemies similar to the way he Pulte used his current job to launch high-profile federal investigations into foes of President Trump like Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James.
President Trump and some of his aides and supporters claim they were targeted for unconstitutional surveillance as part of the “Russiagate” investigation. Also, several members of Congress have been targeted for warrantless surveillance. Yet President Trump and a bipartisan majority in Congress still support the surveillance state.
According to a declassified report, US intelligence agencies failed to implement reforms to minimize the collection and use of US citizens’ information. The agencies promised to make these reforms following Edward Snowden’s revelations of the extent of warrantless surveillance of US citizens.
The only way to protect the American people’s liberty is to dismantle the surveillance state and stop trading real liberty for phantom security. True security comes from replacing militarism and authoritarianism with liberty and peace.
