Politico reports today on the strange partnership between progressives and hard right-wingers who don't want to reauthorize FISA Section 702, which has been routinely and massively abused in the past to spy on Americans. Until recently, the two sides mainly wanted to reform Section 702 so that the FBI requires a warrant before it's allowed to read emails, texts and so forth sent by Americans.
But lately the right-wingers have shifted. They are now focused on reforming "traditional" FISA:
Traditional FISA involves the use of court orders to surveil individuals physically inside the United States. Conservatives allege that the Justice Department has abused it to unlawfully spy on allies of former President Donald Trump — and in particular, former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
....“The Carter Page investigation is just one example of the FBI abusing FISA to surveil American citizens,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “I will be allowing FISA to sunset if we do not see significant reforms in the agency.”
FFS. But I suppose this isn't surprising. Conservatives these days are obsessed with conspiracy theories to the exclusion of almost everything else. In particular, they have spent years claiming that the FBI's investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016—which was kicked off after they got a tip about Carter Page—was illegal, unwarranted, and motivated by partisan witch hunting within the bureau. Nobody believes this except for extreme MAGAnauts, but they believe it with a burning passion.
Because of this we might lose our only chance of reforming Section 702 to require a warrant before the FBI scavenges through mammoth databases of communications by American citizens. Great.
I don't know, I think Republicans these days cannot be seen to agree with Democrats on anything. So this is the spin they put on it for their voters. They still are in favor of FISA reform.
My guess is that there will be quiet agreement and a bill passed without fanfare, maybe during the lame duck session.
They can't wait until next year's lame duck session, because FISA expires at the end of 2023.
Pretty much - the wingnuts are fucking everything up, again.
Of course they don't care about surveillance of the little people, this is all about their fever dreams after discovering the law applies to powerful white people, too, if those powerful white people get too uppity, too fast.
But I think you're missing the actual play here. They want carve outs for themselves and reauthorization for everyone else. They're suckering the anti-surveillance lefties, who are going along with it because they wrongly think they might get half a loaf.
Well stated! Make IOKIYAAR a part of established law! (instead of just in actual fact)
So the magarepubs are weaponizing the government so they can accuse the Dems of weaponizing the government? Why are we still surprised?
Just from what’s been made public, it’s clear that there are substantial and ongoing links between Russian intelligence agencies and the Republican Party or conservative individuals. Carter Page being an excellent example of a potential recruit being targeted and then turned down by Russian intelligence because he’s a total idiot and a clown.
That also means that it makes a lot of sense for Republicans to do whatever they can to insulate the activities of their Russian allies from the scrutiny of American counterintelligence. I’m surprised that Kevin doesn’t see the logic in what the Republicans are doing. For the conservative movement, making life more difficult for counterintelligence agencies and punishing individuals who work against Russian intelligence is basically an act of self preservation.
The CIAs present position on Carter page is that he has always been a US asset, even when he was recruited by the Russians to work for them. The Russians never turned down Page's assistance. The FBI apparently stumbled on this CIA op and brought in Page as a criminal suspect. Page's lawyers cut a deal with the FBI, keeping the fact that Page was working for the CIA secret, where the FBI would drop their investigation if Page's testimony resulted in the criminal conviction of his Russian handler. The handler got 18 months.
And where is this documented?
This seems to be on the Daily Caller and other hard right news sites. But not on any MSM sites and the right wing sites don’t have any links to the supposed places where it was shown that Carter Page was actually working for the CIA, which makes me wonder about the validity of the story.
There aren't enough people in Congress who will end FISA. This is an empty threat.
While there is a large majority in Congress who would like to modify 702, would it be so terrible if 702 were eliminated?
It seems obvious to me that everything should require a warrant, especially under a (distant) future Republican administration.