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For Immediate Release
July, 21 2023, 05:55pm EDT
Contact:
Brian Wesolowski,Director of Communications,[email protected],+1 (202) 407-8814
New FISA Court Opinion Reveals More of the Same: Systemic Misuse of FISA 702
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released a new FISA Court opinion today on FISA Section 702 that demonstrates a continued pattern of violating the rules regarding U.S. person queries and shocking new revelations of abuse. FISA Section 702, enacted in 2008, was originally justified as a counter-terrorism authority focused exclusively on foreigners abroad, but it has morphed into a sprawling warrantless surveillance system for sweeping in and scrutinizing communications of Americans and others in the United States.
In particular, the FISA Court revealed that in 2022, the FBI conducted improper queries to pull up the communications of a U.S. Senator, an unnamed State Senator, and a judge who had complained to the FBI about civil rights violations by a local police chief. None of these queries were likely to return foreign intelligence information or evidence of crimes.
Jake Laperruque, Deputy Director of CDT’s Security & Surveillance Project, says:
“One warrantless query for Americans’ private communications is one too many, and this opinion shows the government is still conducting hundreds of thousands per year, including thousands in violation of their own lax rules.
These new revelations of misconduct show yet again that lack of oversight invites abuse, and that it’s impossible to fix FISA 702 without adding a warrant rule for US person queries.”
Despite government claims that the situation is improving, noncompliance is still rampant. An audit of an FBI office—which had previously queried a batch of 19,000 campaign donors—found that even after new internal measures, improper queries were still occurring over 4 times per week on average.
The FISA court opinion stated FBI US person queries have “leveled off” at an astounding 40,000 to 50,000 per quarter, consistent with prior reporting of roughly 200,000 US person queries per year; even with the improved compliance rate cited this would result in thousands of non-compliant queries per year. The court also revealed new instances where queries were conducted in circumstances without the court order required by law, a statutory requirement that the FBI has violated in every applicable incident since its creation in 2018.
Laperruque added:
“The new information gives no cause for celebration. Claiming this level of warrantless surveillance and abuse is a positive sign is like giving a restaurant a five-star review because the meal was awful but didn’t give you food poisoning like last time.”
Additionally, the FISA Court opinion revealed a troubling expansion of queries by the NSA, conducted to vet individuals applying for immigration benefits. While the court’s opinion does not specify a range of benefits, it does indicate that some US persons who are lawful permanent residents are included. These queries are conducted on a dragnet basis and do not require expectations of returning foreign intelligence information or evidence of a crime.
The Center for Democracy and Technology works to promote democratic values and constitutional liberties in the digital age. With expertise in law, technology, and policy, CDT seeks practical solutions to enhance free expression and privacy in global communications technologies. CDT is dedicated to building consensus among all parties interested in the future of the Internet and other new communications media.
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"Around 2:00 pm, 25 people were arrested for illegally demonstrating in the Rayburn House Office Building," a Capitol Police spokesperson toldAxios.
"It is against the law to protest inside the congressional buildings," the spokesperson said. "More arrests are currently being made."
While the effort to pass the package spans several panels, these protesters were targeting a U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing. As Politicoreported:
Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) repeatedly pounded his gavel and said that "disruption of congressional business is a violation of law and is a criminal offense."
"People feel very strongly because they know they're losing their healthcare," said Ranking Member Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), asking police not to arrest protesters if possible. "Many of them are disabled and I don't want to see them further hurt with their disability in the process of being arrested."
Protesters also lined the halls outside the hearing, many of them in wheelchairs, chanting as police threatened to take more people into custody. Julie Farrar—an activist with ADAPT, a disability rights organization—said there were about 90 people with her group, many of whom are on Medicaid and some who are direct care workers.
Popular Democracy in Action shared video footage of the protesters' chants against Medicaid cuts and comments from one wheelchair user who shouted at lawmakers while being wheeled out by a police officer: "You will kill me! I'm HIV positive. For 20 years, I have survived on my meds that are $10,000 a month... You look at me—I'm from Youngstown, Ohio."
An analysis released by the Congressional Budget Office on Tuesday estimated that under the committee's proposal, by 2034, Medicaid enrollment would drop by 10.3 million people and the number of uninsured individuals would rise by 7.6 million.
President Donald Trump and his Republican Party "are attempting to get away with the daylight robbery of working Americans with this budget," Analilia Mejia, co-executive director of Popular Democracy in Action, said in a Tuesday statement. "Their message is abundantly clear: They do not care about the health and well-being of working people. They only care about filling their pocketbooks, even if it kills the people that depend on these services."
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As Common Dreamsreported earlier Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is mobilizing organizers in swing districts he has recently visited on his Fighting Oligarchy Tour to urge constituents to pressure their representatives to oppose the emerging GOP package.
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Early Tuesday, Israel bombed the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, killing at least two people including photojournalist Hasan Eslaih, who was receiving treatment after surviving a previous Israeli attempt to assassinate him last month.
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Investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill said following the attack that "the U.S. is facilitating these war crimes and most Western journalists remain totally silent."
Later on Tuesday, Israel bombed a courtyard and surrounding areas of the European Hospital, also in Khan Younis, killing at least 28 people and injuring scores more. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) acknowledged the attack, claiming it targeted "Hamas operatives who were inside a command and control complex built within an infrastructure under the hospital."
British surgeon Tom Potokar was inside European Hospital when it was bombed. He said that "this is where kids with cancer are waiting to be evacuated and supposed to be 'deconflicted."
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The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs condemned the strikes,
saying on social media that "these attacks are unacceptable and must end. Healthcare is not a target."
Attacks on medical facilities are war crimes under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
The Gaza Health Ministry decried "the repeated targeting of hospitals and the pursuit and killing of wounded patients inside treatment rooms," adding that such attacks confirm "Israel's deliberate intent to inflict greater damage to the healthcare system."
In the United States, the advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement that fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "bombs hospitals, slaughters Palestinian civilians, destroys homes, and seeks to starve and ethnically cleanse the population of Gaza, all in a brutal campaign to continue Israel's genocide and stay in office indefinitely."
CAIR added that U.S. President Donald Trump "must act to stop these crimes against humanity, which our nation has unfortunately enabled for decades, and finally allow the Palestinian people to live in peace and freedom."
IDF strikes have obliterated Gaza's medical infrastructure along with the rest of the densely populated strip. Last year, an independent United Nations commission found that "Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza's healthcare system as part of a broader assault on Gaza, committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities."
The commission's report detailed hundreds of IDF attacks on Gaza healthcare facilities and the killing or wounding of around 1,700 medical workers, calling such killings "widespread and systematic."
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The national debt is currently $36.2 trillion. The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) on Tuesday released an analysis showing that the Republican bill would cost $3.8 trillion through 2034, or 1.1% of gross domestic product.
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The JCT's release coincides with a key meeting in the U.S. House of Representatives. As Politicodetailed:
The newly revised estimate released Tuesday afternoon is up slightly from the $3.7 trillion price tag budget forecasters had previously put on the plan, and it comes as the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee began formally debating the package. Additional changes are possible there, and also later, when Republicans are preparing to take the legislation to the House floor."
[...]
Under the House GOP's budget, the size of their tax cuts is contingent on lawmakers simultaneously cutting spending, and Republicans are hoping to match $4 trillion in tax cuts with $1.5 trillion in spending reductions.
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Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) similarly listed provisions on social media Tuesday—and highlighted their impacts.
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Although Republicans control both chambers and the White House, their majorities are slim, meaning absences and disagreements over issues like increasing the deficit or cuts that will anger constituents in swing districts could slow or even impede their ability to send "one big, beautiful bill" to Trump's desk.
As Common Dreamsreported earlier Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is deploying organizers to mobilize opposition against the GOP's emerging reconciliation package, focusing on districts he has visited as part of his Fighting Oligarchy Tour.
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