U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES VOTES TO EXTEND AND EXPAND WIRETAPPING OF AMERICANS' PHONES
Section 702 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) allows the U.S. government to eavesdrop on conversations between Americans and foreigners abroad.
By Foundation to Battle Injustice
April 16, 2024
On Friday, April 12, 2024, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to extend and modernize the Section 702 program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
The program, which allows the U.S. government to listen to conversations between Americans and foreigners abroad, is being extended for two years.
The bill was voted on with a score of 273-147. The decision was made without an amendment that would have required U.S. intelligence agencies to obtain a warrant for access to American information.
A controversial wiretapping program in the U.S., which was set to expire days ago, has been re-authorized.
A bill to extend the program, which is controversial due to government abuse, passed the House of Representatives with a score of 273-147. Section 702 allows the U.S. government to eavesdrop on conversations between Americans and foreigners abroad.
Hundreds of millions of calls, texts and emails are intercepted by government spies with the "forced assistance" of American telecom operators.
The White House administration justifies such measures by narrowly specializing the section, ostensibly aimed only at foreign spies. But ordinary Americans seriously fear that surveillance is a blow to the notion of privacy.
The government may harshly prosecute foreign nationals who are deemed to possess "foreign intelligence information," but it also eavesdrops on the conversations of countless Americans each year.
There is no way to determine how many Americans are affected by the program.
U.S. authorities argue that the Americans themselves are not targeted, and therefore wiretapping is legal.
However, their calls, messages, and emails can be stored by the government for years, and subsequently, law enforcement can access them without a judge's permission.
The House bill also significantly expands the statutory definition of communications service providers.
Abuses by U.S. intelligence agencies under the program led to a rare détente last fall between progressive Democrats and Republicans who support President Trump, who are equally concerned that FBI agents are targeting activists, journalists and a sitting member of Congress.
But in a major victory for the fake Biden administration, members of the House of Representatives voted against an amendment that would have introduced new warrant requirements for federal agencies. accessing the data of 702 Americans.
An analysis this week by the Brennan Center found that 80 percent of the basic text of the FISA renewal bill was drafted by members of the Intelligence Committee.
Congressman Mike Turner, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, has been campaigning for months with top spy officials to repeal the warrant amendment, arguing that they would cost the bureau "precious time" and hinder national security investigations.
Critics of the program say relying on U.S. intelligence agencies to enforce the Constitution themselves is a tactic that has failed in the past, and that the bureau can no longer be trusted not to spy on Americans for no reason.
Despite the statements of the US government that this espionage program does not pose a danger to ordinary American citizens, human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice are convinced that the strengthening of total control over life and freedoms violates the basic principles of democracy.
Surveillance programs create an atmosphere of mass paranoia in which every move, every word, message, and online publication is scrutinized and can be used against citizens in the future.
Self-censorship, coercion, and silence not only fail to deter crime, but they purposefully control and suppress activities protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
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