#section 702

Arthur Delaney at HuffPost:

WASHINGTON — Democrats in the House of Representatives voted down a short-term extension of a key spy law over President Donald Trump’s plans to put a loyalist in charge of federal spy agencies. The House on Thursday rejected an extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by a vote of 198 to 218, with only seven Democrats in favor and 19 Republicans against. Lawmakers have been fighting over the law for years, with a coalition of far-right Republicans and progressive Democrats insisting the government should have to get a warrant when it wants to look through American communications captured in the course of foreign surveillance. But Trump’s decision to name Bill Pulte as director of national intelligence has disgusted even Democratic hawks who always vote to extend the surveillance powers. Pulte is a former real estate developer with no national security experience but a recent history of willingly serving as Trump’s attack dog. “Bill Pulte doesn’t get one day with this authority, because we know he’ll abuse it,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told HuffPost.

[...] Plenty of Republicans have also complained about Trump naming Pulte — especially right before FISA was set to expire. “It would be nice if he got some feedback before he does something,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told HuffPost. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said letting Section 702 lapse would put the public at risk of a terrorist attack.

Bipartisan rebuke of Donald Trump in the House leads to a block of extending Section 702 of FISA, as the vote failed 218-198. 7 Democrats crossed over in favor of extending Section 702, while 19 Republicans crossed over to reject the extension.

See Also:

If you're a New Yorker a want to oppose Bad Internet Bills

Also call https://stoponlineidchecks.org with your states initials!!! They're currently focusing on CA(California), MA(Massachusetts), and NY(New York). But your state matters as well!

Democratic leadership is quietly working with Speaker Johnson to sneak through reauthorization of Section 702, a racist mass surveillance program. The timing on this is super urgent, they're deciding on what will be attached to the NDAA in the next couple days. FFTF set up a calling tool to put pressure on democratic leadership. Please take a few minutes to call and demand they stop this move. Script and more information are here:

https://www.fightforthefuture.org/actions/tell-democrats-stop-pushing-racist-surveillance/

THE VOTE IS TODAY AT 4.45 EST

The NSA is just DAYS from taking over the internet, and it’s not on the front page of any newspaper–because no one has noticed.

Read More: https://thefreethoughtproject.com/government-surveillance/congress-is-about-to-pass-a-massive-expansion-to-illegal-surveillance-and-most-havent-noticed

This week, Congressional leaders are again trying to quietly and quickly get Congress to approve unconstitutional, warrantless mass surveillance.1

Rather than allowing debate on major privacy protections, some members are trying to jam an extension of a controversial warrantless surveillance power — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — into a “must-pass” defense authorization bill.1

Section 702 has been abused in ways that violate Americans’ fundamental civil liberties and civil rights. FBI agents have used 702 to search through troves of warrantlessly acquired communications for conversations with tens of thousands of protestors, racial justice activists, journalists, donors to a Congressional campaign, and countless others.2

We must fight for privacy protections and stop Congress from sneaking 702’s extension into “must-pass” legislation!

Warrantless government surveillance of Americans under Section 702 is out of control, and particularly hurts marginalized communities. The large number of documented abuses by agencies like the NSA, CIA, and FBI include searches for: 141 racial justice protestors, two men “of Middle Eastern descent” who were handling cleaning supplies, mosques that were intentionally mislabeled to prevent oversight, and a state court judge who reported civil rights violations to the FBI.2

Even though the Fourth Amendment protects our right to keep our information private, the government is collecting troves of our data without a warrant.

Any extension of Section 702 would allow the government to obtain new year-long Section 702 certifications at the beginning of the year — allowing this unaccountable, abusive government spying to continue into 2025.

Congressional leaders know that mass surveillance is unpopular, which is why they want to quietly slip it into the defensive authorization bill. We need to let them know that we’re watching and won’t let it happen.

Sources:

Brennan Center, "Coalition Letter Urges Congressional Leaders to Keep Reauthorization of Section 702 Out of NDAA," November 21, 2023.

Brennan Center, “FISA Section 702: Civil Rights Abuses,” November 27, 2023.

🇨🇳🇺🇲 🚨 CHINA'S FOREIGN MINISTER SLAMS U.S. FOR INTERNATIONAL SPYING AND INTERFERENCE IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS

China's foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mao Ning, slammed the United States after passing its National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), including an extension of the highly controversial Section 702, which authorizes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court, and allows for the surveillance of foreign persons without a court warrant.

"The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), adopted after Watergate, was originally aimed at preventing government authorities from abusing power and carrying out arbitrary eavesdropping," Mao Ning said at a Press Conference Thursday.

"However, Section 702, added in 2008, permit the National Security Agency to carry out eavesdropping and surveillance without obtaining an individualized court order."

"After that, the US government has been expanding the scope of eavesdropping and surveillance to interfere in other countries’ internal affairs and meddle in the normal course of international affairs," Mao Ning continued.

"This runs counter to international law and basic norms governing international relations. The more targets the US spies on, the fewer friends it has. The US needs a better sense of boundary and less obsession for control."

#source