Free Republic

You might remember FISA warrants from the infamous and disgraceful Russia hoax saga. Well, they’re making headlines again as lawmakers debate bringing back the use of the 702 FISA warrantless searches that came about after 9/11 and during the Patriot Act frenzy and were used and abused against innocent Americans. ... Everyone’s favorite warrantless surveillance tool, FISA Section 702, returns to the US House of Representatives this week and is expected to go to a full House vote on Thursday. Or, it may all fall apart (again) in the House Rules Committee on Tuesday. This week’s congressional action follows an...

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), along with other members of the U.S. intelligence community, are pushing for Congress to expand Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 in order to fight the ongoing fentanyl crisis.According to the Brennan Center of Justice, Section 702, “Authorizes the government to collect the communications of non-Americans located abroad without a warrant from a court. While this surveillance is supposed to target foreigners, it inevitably sweeps in Americans’ private phone calls, emails, and text messages too.” (snip) However, CIA officials believe in its current form, Section 702 limits the intelligence community from...

@BasedMikeLee Just a few weeks ago, the House was ready to pass legislation prohibiting warrantless searches of Americans’ private communications under FISA 702. A few House Republicans then created a fake “national security” distraction and convinced the House to adjourn. Shameful. @RepThomasMassie The U.S. government uses the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on Americans without a warrant. This week, the House will vote to require the Feds to get a warrant to snoop on Americans. Sadly this vote is likely to fail. I will demand a recorded vote & post results.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) renewal deadline is fast approaching as conservative lawmakers and some Democrats continue their push for ending warrantless surveillance. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, including conservative and progressive legislators, have called for reforming section 702 of FISA ahead of the April 19 deadline. According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Section 702 is a "key provision of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that permits the government to conduct targeted surveillance of foreign persons located outside the United States, with the compelled assistance of electronic communication service providers, to acquire...

EXCLUSIVE — Newly released details about a controversial mass surveillance program shed light on the pitfalls of government data acquisition programs as Congress debates reauthorizing a crucial statute. The Drug Enforcement Administration collected massive amounts of telephone records for 20 years before the program was shuttered amid the Edward Snowden revelations in 2013. A heavily redacted inspector general’s report into the program was released six years later, a more forthcoming version of which has been obtained by the Washington Examiner. While the Office of the Inspector General exists to provide oversight of government agencies, among the new details of the...

The Biden Administration has asked a court, rather than Congress, to renew controversial warrantless surveillance powers used by American intelligence and due to expire within weeks. It's a move that is either business as usual or an end-run around spying reforms, depending on who in Washington you believe. Both may be true. US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) railed at the US Department of Justice's decision to seek a year-long extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which is set to end in mid-April unless Congress reauthorizes it. "A broad bipartisan, bicameral coalition agrees that FISA Section 702...

Late last year, Congress extended Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and, in doing so, secured “the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers” until April 2024. With that month fast approaching, House Republicans have unveiled a new package to reauthorize those same powers, within limits. As the Hill reports, the new package “focus[es] on more reforms at the FBI to address misuse of the powerful spy tool,” but the deal does not include requirements for a warrant, which is “deemed a red line for the intelligence community but nonetheless a top priority for privacy advocates in Congress.” The new...

The Republican House had unceremoniously sent forward a bill that would reauthorize Section 702, a highly-controversial provision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), but yesterday, over a little too much negative press, they temporarily shelved the vote. Without congressional intervention, Section 702 is set to expire in a little over two months.FISA was originally meant to target noncitizens abroad, especially suspected terrorists, but somewhere along the way, the trawl net snared suspicious, non-woke, non-PhD, MAGA-like, presidential candidates who talked about draining the swamp of Washington D.C. and rooting out the corruption plauging the people.Some federal agencies, and even entrenched...

The House of Representatives have delayed a vote on reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and Section 702. “In order to allow Congress more time to reach consensus on how best to reform FISA and Section 702 while maintaining the integrity of our critical national security programs, the House will consider the reform and reauthorization bill at a later date,” Raj Shah, a spokesman for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) stated on X. ... “Just as we were winning the debate on requiring warrants for domestic spying in the FISA 702 reauthorization, the Speaker yanked the bill and cancelled...

@RepThomasMassie 🚨 UNBELIEVABLE 🚨 Just as we were winning the debate on requiring warrants for domestic spying in the FISA 702 reauthorization, the Speaker yanked the bill and cancelled the rest of Congress this week.

House conservatives are renewing their call for an end to the warrantless surveillance of Americans as Congress considers reforming Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The short-term extension of the controversial federal government surveillance program expires April 19. "Under no circumstance should the federal government spy on the American people without a warrant! Congress shouldn't waste its time on meaningless FISA 'reform' but work to abolish this unconstitutional abuse of power!" wrote Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., Monday on X. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said this will be a "big week for FISA reform" in Congress. "The FBI has...

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is aiming to vote on reauthorizing and potentially reforming deep state powers next week, according to a report. Politico reported compromise legislation is still being drafted between Republicans on the more privacy-minded Judiciary Committee, more intelligence-community-friendly members on the Intelligence Committee, and representatives from Republican leadership. The bill would largely mirror a bill drafted by Intelligence Committee Republicans, and Judiciary Committee members and other privacy “hawks” would then be allowed to offer amendments, including one that would require a warrant before searching Americans’ private information under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Section...

Attorneys at the ACLU of Northern California found what they called an “alarming error” in a geofence warrant application that “resulted in a warrant stretching nearly two miles across San Francisco.” The error, likely caused by a typo, allowed the requesting law enforcement agency to capture information on anyone who entered the stretch of San Francisco erroneously marked on the search warrant. “Many private homes were also captured in the massive sweep,” wrote Jake Snow, ACLU staff attorney, in a blog post about the findings. It’s not known which law enforcement agency requested the nearly two-mile-long geofence warrant, or for...

At Christmas I think of others and I wanted to think about Kathy Barnette who many of us admired and supported for US Senate in the spring of 2022 right here in Pennsylvania... British Intelligence and the CIA and so on got these civil wars going in Libya and Syria in 2011 using Al Qaeda followers admirers of Bin Laden the kind of folks that perped 9/11. Then Russia and Hezbollah came in to help to prop up the ruler of Syria Bashar al Assad. And then.... ISIS-Daesh Islamic State call them what you will came along... Ukraine Funding is...

House conservatives are unhappy with House Speaker Mike Johnson's handling of the defense bill passage, which included temporary Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization. Republicans and some Democrats have been calling for changes to FISA's Section 702, which deals with federal surveillance of U.S. citizens abroad. House GOP leaders pulled two FISA reform bills from the House floor and the National Defense Authorization Act passed with a temporary FISA extension through April 19. More House Democrats voted in favor of the NDAA than Republicans. The NDAA passed in the Democratic-led Senate 87-13. "I love our military. That’s why I voted for...

OK I went to his twitter page to see if he's explained his vote on FISA inclusion in the NDAA and not a peep. It's full of interviews etc. of him being against Free Speech on campuses What is he doing? He might not like certain speech but as a Member of Congress it's not up to him to decide. He's losing the plot with all this. John Cornyn is taking heat on the NDAA (rightly). I still haven't heard anything from Cruz. Perhaps someone from TX can find out what the situation is. He can't hide from this forever!

DC_Draino @DC_Draino 147 Republicans just voted to reauthorize the FISA 702 program that was used to illegally spy on President Trump Their voters deserve answers

The House, in a decisive vote Thursday, passed the annual defense authorization bill, delivering a bipartisan rebuke to its most conservative members who had sought to infuse the legislation with a wishlist of provisions targeting Pentagon policies on abortion, diversity and LGBTQ+ rights. The $886 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was approved by a vote of 310-118, having passed the Senate by an overwhelming margin Wednesday night. It proceeds next to the White House, where President Biden is expected to sign the legislation into law.

@BasedMikeLee The Senate just voted to waive the point of order against the NDAA. 35 of us opposed the motion to waive. We needed only 41 to prevent this outcome, and to remove FISA 702 from the NDAA. This is not good. The House should #StopTheNDAA.

They're suspending the rules and need 2/3rds to pass the FISA attachment to the NDAA. What are the odds? I bet they will vote this through almost unanimously! Sad. In any case, you could pressure your Rep. today or tomorrow...