THE FISA ACT & SECTION 702: A BRIEF OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION


In the movie "Snowden", it was made clear that the CIA/NSA had systematically infiltrated every countries' communications infrastructure under the PRISM program in order to surveil their governments, businesses and citizens. The movie went onto say the surveillance was indiscriminate, targeting terrorist states along with friendly countries. The conclusion he arrived at was the surveillance wasn't about terrorism, it was about control. That observation applied to the U.S. as well.

Full spectrum, warrantless, dragnet style surveillance is now in full effect. While there seemed to be restraints in place to prevent spying on Americans without just cause, in fact, there were none. This is what Edward Snowden exposed by his leaking of documents which exposed the activity. In addition, the leaks left egg on the face of the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who lied in front of a congressional committee and the nation that no such program existed. He resigned amid the fall out of the false testimony he gave.

It should be noted that Clapper then went onto join the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a Washington, DC think tank. The CNAS' focus include terrorism, irregular warfare, and the national security implications of natural resource consumption.

FISA SECTION 702
 
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)[1]
provides Intelligence Agencies authorization to surveil the communications of non-US persons outside the United States.

If you watched the movie "Snowden", you know that Americans within the United States are surveilled under 702. In order to do this, a warrant must be approved by a FISA Court judge. However, as stated in the movie, the FISA Court judges rubber-stamp the warrants.

THE PROTECT AMERICA ACT OF 2007

"The Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA)[2] is a controversial amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush. It removed the warrant requirement for government surveillance of foreign intelligence targets "reasonably believed" to be outside the United States."

"The bill allowed the monitoring of all electronic communications of "Americans communicating with foreigners who are the targets of a U.S. terrorism investigation" without a court's order or oversight, so long as it is not targeted at one particular person "reasonably believed to be" inside the country."

"The Protect America Act differed from the FISA in that no discussion of actions or character judgment of the target was required for application of the statute (i.e., to receive a FISA surveillance warrant, a FISC foreign agent definition was required). This data could be monitored only if intelligence officials acted in the context of intelligence information gathering.[3]"

"No criminal or terrorism investigation of the person need be in play at time of the Directive. All that need be required is that the target be related to an official desire for intelligence information gathering for actions on part of persons involved in surveillance to be granted full immunity from U.S. criminal or civil procedures, under Section 105B(l) of the Act. "

CITATIONS

[1] FISA 702  
https://intelligence.house.gov/fisa-702/

[2] Protect America Act of 2007
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_America_Act_of_2007…

[3] 'Quasi-anti-terrorism law' for all-forms of intelligence collection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect_America_Act_of_2007