[HN Gopher] FBI: FISA Section 702 'absolutely critical' to spy o...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       FBI: FISA Section 702 'absolutely critical' to spy on, err, protect
       Americans
        
       Author : rntn
       Score  : 201 points
       Date   : 2023-06-10 14:05 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theregister.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theregister.com)
        
       | EMCymatics wrote:
       | I wonder how we are protecting the public square for or against
       | private interests?
        
       | hunglee2 wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
         | pyinstallwoes wrote:
         | That's probably where algorithms can shine, given its rules are
         | public within. certain lagging window and inspectable. The
         | automated bias is a good thing in that case because it's at
         | least predictable compared to human corruption in surveillance.
         | AI kind of emerges as a perfect middle mediator between parties
         | by being not of the same species.
        
         | nathan_compton wrote:
         | I can't help but find this a bit disingenuous. People on
         | Hackernews are posting publicly and voluntarily with the
         | expectation of moderation. Reading hackernews comments would
         | be, for the FBI, regular detective work.
         | 
         | The issue here is the public's expectation of privacy in
         | certain situations. In fact, no one (or very few people,
         | anyway) dispute the need for states to surveil sometimes. The
         | question is when and what oversight should be required. And in
         | this case the the argument is that oversight was sidestepped.
        
           | EMCymatics wrote:
           | I don't know what has been posted before this all I see is
           | [flagged].
           | 
           | >posting publicly and voluntarily with the expectation of
           | moderation
           | 
           | I find this statement a bit difficult when it is perhaps a
           | duty to participate in the public square or whatever square
           | is used to embody the desires of common or public will. If
           | people are deterred from this arena without cause and abuse
           | then perhaps we have failed. This entire ecosystem rests on
           | the belief of decency or fairness. I have yet to see it.
           | 
           | >The issue here is the public's expectation of privacy in
           | certain situations. In fact, no one (or very few people,
           | anyway) dispute the need for states to surveil sometimes. The
           | question is when and what oversight should be required. And
           | in this case the the argument is that oversight was
           | sidestepped.
           | 
           | That is incorrect. During the oversight committee they
           | identified there was a consistent mis-interpertation of the
           | law (now corrected) from one side to the other under 702
           | which perhaps enabled unauthorized use (which perhaps was
           | appropriate under other sections). It was up to (not just due
           | to mis-interpertation) 30% of searches in error in the
           | potential to be in the millions of incorrect searches. I dont
           | see much oversight for other codes. We have possibly 10,000
           | people with access to obtain information and we are not close
           | to consistent oversight given moving codes and
           | authorizations. Congress has failed the bodies that keep us
           | safe but not without some significant non-compliance. [1]
           | 
           | Private access to information probably has great advantage
           | over public ones. I believe we should consider carefully how
           | we want to yield the power the public sector has given us.
           | The potential for private and public conflict on this matter
           | is significant.
           | 
           | We should not shoo people away with differing opinions. If
           | language models are the future for communication and teaching
           | while they are learning with data off of 'public' and
           | 'accurate' discorse we are very much in danger of having a
           | future led by biases inherent in these models (from
           | moderation and 'weeded garden' environments) that 'isnt a
           | problem' to the people creating the future.
           | 
           | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIEqAjRKVyE
        
         | zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
         | Is this a joke?
        
         | ok123456 wrote:
         | Germany does it now without a surveillance state.
        
       | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
       | To any HN community that was here prior to the Edward Snowden
       | releases:
       | 
       | Prior to 2013, we had enough evidence (Mark Klein, etc) that US
       | Gov was actively conducting bulk warrantless surveillance of
       | Americans (not suspected of a crime).
       | 
       | Back then, was there a dominant HN vibe about domestic spying
       | (eg: yawn, apologist, anger)?
        
         | eastbound wrote:
         | The mood back then was that domestic spying didn't exist.
         | 
         | As in: Imagine the scale it requires, you're stupid if you
         | believe, what, that the NSA tapes all of our records?!? Put
         | your tinfoil hat back.
        
           | jerkstate wrote:
           | I dunno, there's always been a greybeard contingent here
           | that's been in or around telecom or otherwise know about
           | Operation Shamrock, Echelon, room 641A, and so on, before
           | Snowden.
        
             | fnordfnordfnord wrote:
             | Yeah and it was pretty common to be voted down and called a
             | crank over it too.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | Hence, "greybeard." Even when people are talking about
               | something that they know to be true, they ground
               | themselves in derogatory stereotypes about the people who
               | were right.
        
         | colordrops wrote:
         | You were called a nutjob for trying to bring it up.
         | 
         | Once it became public, a lot of the narrative that you see now
         | was developed behind the scenes by the people responsible for
         | these systems. The (yawn, apologist, anger) was created as a
         | playbook, and most people don't think for themselves, so they
         | parrot this narrative.
         | 
         | It is 100% clear that domestic spying in the US is
         | unconstitutional and unethical. There is no debate, and those
         | that present it as a debate, or even that you are naive for not
         | wanting it, are in service of the narrative.
        
       | activiation wrote:
       | Secret courts violate all laws....
        
       | 666satanhimself wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | EscapeFromNY wrote:
       | When it comes to the US, a lot of people treat "freedom" as a
       | euphemism for war. (see: Team America)
       | 
       | I wonder if "protection" will start becoming a euphemism for
       | surveillance.
        
         | chiefalchemist wrote:
         | If? We're already there. That's the crux of this article.
        
         | sneak wrote:
         | The US Department of Defense (renamed from Department of War)
         | is currently waging offensive war in a half dozen foreign lands
         | right now.
        
           | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
           | Which foreign lands?
        
             | joecool1029 wrote:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_armed_conflicts_invol
             | v... < look for present, it's probably more than a half-
             | dozen. Falls under the same Authorization for Use of
             | Miltary Force of 2001.
        
               | HWR_14 wrote:
               | There are five conflicts under "present", none of which
               | are offensive. Two are helping countries put down
               | insurgencies, two are fighting piracy from Somalia and
               | two are involved in civil wars in the Middle East. (They
               | add up to six because insurgents and pirates are allies).
               | Most of them are as part of a giant collation. Only the
               | Syrian one is actually being led by the US.
               | 
               | None of them are to conquer territory or any other
               | description of "offensive war" I've ever seen.
        
               | sneak wrote:
               | None of them involve defending the US.
        
               | HWR_14 wrote:
               | None of them are terribly US specific. The UK is involved
               | in all the same conflicts. France, all but the
               | intervention in Somalia. Three of them have countries
               | like Belgium and Canada involved.
               | 
               | The two fighting pirates who are attacking US ships
               | overseas are clearly "defending the US" under
               | international and US law. (And the coalition there
               | includes Russia and North Korea fighting _on the US side_
               | ). The others are the US honoring it's treaty obligations
               | by defending her allies or honoring the request of a
               | government for help, usually by providing training and
               | logistics support.
               | 
               | Except for Syria, where the US is actually leading a
               | coalition. But that is more a humanitarian intervention
               | than anything else.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | > Except for Syria, where the US is actually leading a
               | coalition. But that is more a humanitarian intervention
               | than anything else.
               | 
               | The intervention is what created the humanitarian crisis.
               | Currently, its humanitarian goal is to guard oil
               | production.
        
               | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
               | Moving the goalposts. Original claim was _offensive_
               | wars.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | Are these _charitable_ wars? _Decorative_ wars? What 's
               | the right term for entering into war with countries that
               | aren't attacking you?
        
               | sneak wrote:
               | Well given that they're not engaging in the _defense_
               | which is in the title of the organization, they must be
               | offensive - there is no third option.
               | 
               | Point being that we already invert terms like "defense"
               | to mean "offense".
        
         | asveikau wrote:
         | Team America was satirizing a specific moment in history, where
         | they used fear of 9/11 to support an unjust war. That moment
         | has passed. We may be vulnerable to that kind of crap again,
         | but I don't see it right now.
        
           | xbar wrote:
           | I am not sure. I feel more surveilled than I thought would
           | ever be possible. My car watches me in my own garage, and the
           | FBI can pull that data without telling me, without a warrant,
           | just to learn my impressive laundry habits (I'll skip you the
           | trouble, FBI: I use Gain and Downy and Borax, always on cold,
           | tumble dry low).
        
             | asveikau wrote:
             | And how is that related to using freedom as a reason to
             | invade a sovereign state and suppress opinions not in
             | favor?
        
             | colpabar wrote:
             | Sure, but to be fair, how many 9/11's have happened since
             | the first one?
        
               | monocasa wrote:
               | How many have been attempted since then?
        
               | drewcoo wrote:
               | They happen annually.
        
               | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
               | 9/11 was the extreme statistical anomaly. US Citizens
               | have been historically safe from domestic terrorism for
               | 50 years.
               | 
               | ref: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/
               | 16/eight... (2013 but the numbers are about the same.
               | Odds of dying in a domestic terror attack vary between
               | 1:12000000 & 1:40000000 or the same as picking the
               | correct inch between DC and NYC).
               | 
               | It is interesting this period of safety coincided with
               | the release of the Pentagon Papers and the Church
               | Committee that followed. One result of which was forcing
               | the FBI away from domestic surveillance and refocusing it
               | into a law enforcement mission. This lasted for about 40
               | years (after which the FBI officially abandoned it's LEO
               | mission to pursue the power that comes with NatSec
               | operations).
        
             | HWR_14 wrote:
             | The FBI never needed a warrant to get information you give
             | to companies freely. That's why they never needed a warrant
             | for phone records.
             | 
             |  _You_ have rights to protect _your_ data, but you (and
             | Tesla, et al) don 't have rights or legal responsibilities
             | to protect data you collect on others.
        
           | justinclift wrote:
           | No. Team America was satirizing the general US approach of
           | trampling over all other countries in the name of "The
           | American Way".
           | 
           | That's not really changed.
        
             | asveikau wrote:
             | Not really.
             | 
             | I haven't seen the thing since 2004. But I thought it was
             | pretty dumb and ironically very US centric in its treatment
             | of these topics. It wasn't a deep criticism. It also at the
             | same time mocked celebrities for being against the war.
             | 
             | For the record I was very vehemently against the Iraq war
             | from day one.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | smegger001 wrote:
         | that would be double-plus-ungood.
        
         | HPsquared wrote:
         | That's a word to be avoided in branding, I think.
         | 
         | The former German SS (Schutzstaffel) translates to "protection
         | squadron" in English.
        
       | Slava_Propanei wrote:
       | [dead]
        
       | supernova87a wrote:
       | For those interested in a genuine intellectual debate about it, I
       | offer the following point.
       | 
       | Do you believe that there is no role / need whatsoever for a
       | court in the United States that needs to hear confidential
       | matters having to do with law enforcement, where to reveal it to
       | the subject would compromise the investigation?
       | 
       | If you do believe there is the role for such a court, then the
       | question is not whether it should exist, but how well it is
       | overseen / checked, and what mechanisms there are to make sure it
       | operates on correct information and has an advocate for the
       | parties that are not allowed to participate in its decisions.
       | 
       | If you believe that there is never a need for law enforcement
       | decisions to be made that cannot be revealed to the accused
       | party, then that is a separate (and in my opinion,
       | impractical/unreal) point. We might as well ban judge-issued
       | search warrants unless the person whose property is being
       | searched gets a chance to hear the evidence and object.
        
         | pclmulqdq wrote:
         | There is unequivocally no role for a top-secret _court_ in a
         | democratic society. You can argue that there is a role for a
         | top-secret investigative body, but that is not, and cannot be
         | called, a _court of law_ in a free society. It also cannot, in
         | turn, have the powers reserved for a court.
         | 
         | If the FBI wants a warrant, they should have to go through a
         | process where they are held accountable to the public and
         | afterwards the accused can challenge the validity of the
         | warrant. End of story. That is how a free society works. Plenty
         | of people go through the normal warrant process without hearing
         | about their warrant (so evidence is not destroyed) and then get
         | a chance to challenge it after the fact. The FISA courts close
         | off any chance to challenge your warrant. I think the bare
         | minimum for an enforcement body to get a warrant is _to reveal
         | the information being used to get the warrant to the party
         | being served the warrant_. The fact that the FISA court does
         | not have this requirement makes a mockery of democracy.
         | 
         | You may not like it. It may make your job inconvenient (if you
         | happen to be a fed). I don't care. As the person holding the
         | gun to the peoples' head, you should have to do a little extra
         | paperwork if you want to pull the trigger.
        
         | ccooffee wrote:
         | > If you believe that there is never a need for law enforcement
         | decisions to be made that cannot be revealed to the accused
         | party, then that is a separate (and in my opinion,
         | impractical/unreal) point.
         | 
         | Well, uhh, thanks for inviting a "genuine intellectual debate"
         | and then out-of-hand dismissing any disagreements as
         | "impractical/unreal".
         | 
         | We already have the grand jury which is a secret process and
         | can deliver so called "sealed indictments" which prevents the
         | indicted party from knowing they have been indicted. Grand
         | juries have significant oversight and a long history of legal
         | oversight.
         | 
         | FISA "courts", on the other hand, operate in an intentionally
         | ill-defined legal space. To me, FISA courts are just as
         | nonsense as the "unlawful enemy combatant" Bush-era policies.
         | "This system is not _technically_ against the law because we
         | built-in enough loopholes to prevent any actual legal
         | oversight" should not be a valid argument for upholding a
         | corrupt status-quo.
         | 
         | I don't accept the premise that some information is _too
         | dangerous_ to be heard by a grand jury. We already have legal
         | processes to limit exposure, including many trial processes
         | that are done without the jury being present.
        
           | pclmulqdq wrote:
           | Grand juries are sworn to secrecy already, with pretty strict
           | penalties if that secrecy is broken. There is no reason that
           | this can't apply to so-called "Top Secret" information (a
           | label that is already applied _far_ too liberally) if you run
           | a background check on them. Over a million people have a TS-
           | level clearance already. Grand juries would add another few
           | hundred.
           | 
           | People who like the FISA court want that grand jury to have
           | the powers of a court. This is ridiculous.
        
         | joshspankit wrote:
         | There's a very good reason we have the process of investigate >
         | accuse > bring to court and in those cases the accused party is
         | detained while the facts are reviewed and the matter decided.
         | Judge-issued search warrants are done as a part of the
         | investigation and the investigation itself is secret.
        
         | stainablesteel wrote:
         | a need for that? i suppose, but i wouldn't call it a court
         | 
         | why can't all of this secrecy stuff be done behind the scenes,
         | then brought before a real court once finalized? federal courts
         | even have some layers of secrecy so i don't see the issue with
         | implementing the plain-jane judicial system here
        
       | zug_zug wrote:
       | I think as a starting point maybe a good thing to agree on is
       | that we want more transparency around alleged threats.
       | 
       | Iirc this all started around 9/11 and there was this shroud of
       | secrecy mentality that revealing _anything_ , even whether the
       | operation had even caught a single terrorist, was somehow going
       | to empower terrorists. I think in hindsight that doesn't hold up
       | to scrutinty.
       | 
       | I think some good metrics to be made public before a renewal is
       | considered should be: what crimes were being investigated (e.g.
       | was this drugs, pornography, domestic election tampering,
       | international spying, exfiltration of government secrets, money
       | laundering?). And how many total cases? And what % of cases lead
       | to a conviction? And also a way for everyday citizens to request
       | an FOIA on whether they had their data looked at.
       | 
       | There are world where I could see this hypothetically being put
       | to good use, and if people know what they use this for becomes
       | visible to the public I think it forces us closer to such a
       | world.
        
         | drewcoo wrote:
         | > Iirc this all started around 9/11
         | 
         | Added in 2008.
         | 
         | https://www.intel.gov/foreign-intelligence-surveillance-act/...
        
         | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
         | > a good thing to agree on is that we want more transparency
         | around alleged threats.
         | 
         | I'll separate out digital threats here as evidence you are
         | beyond correct.
         | 
         | 1) Decades of taxpayers funding the hoarding of ~100% of threat
         | data, away from qualified netsec experts, so that it could be
         | reserved to protecting US Gov interests (noting that NatSec
         | typically includes US Gov, Gov partners, major campaign donors
         | and that's about it).
         | 
         | 2) One agency head after another sounding klaxons w/o evidence
         | (eg:Digital Pearl Harbor), to influence policy in a way that
         | would ratchet up agency power.
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
         | They could definitely do a better job of communicating what
         | they're doing, why they need to do it, risks, and their
         | successes or failures. With that said they _do_ communicate
         | with Congress who are all directly elected by us.
         | 
         | I think that we should also agree that secrecy is sometimes
         | necessary.
        
           | ClumsyPilot wrote:
           | if i recall correctly, a three-letter agency was spying on
           | the congress comitee that oversees them.
           | 
           | When was the last time a senior official of a 3-letter agency
           | was fired/jailed for exceeding his authority? Did it ever
           | happen?
        
             | daniel-cussen wrote:
             | [dead]
        
       | AmenBreak wrote:
       | [flagged]
        
       | cornflake23 wrote:
       | So long as it first, and only applies to the plebes, most of whom
       | are too caught up in just surviving, these arguments will just
       | remain as doublespeak.
       | 
       | Problems in any institution are systemic to large degrees. From
       | hiring to training and culture. Those take time to change too.
       | 
       | Checks and Balances, the Supreme courts etc are just the tail end
       | of the endemic issues. Add the military-corporate-oligarchy
       | complex and you have what we got here.
       | 
       | And in spite of saying all this, I too am juggling with high rent
       | and trying to secure a future for my family. Ie no "time" to do
       | anything but offer just words. I suspect many are in situations
       | like me.
        
       | cyanydeez wrote:
       | Forgive me, but it's hard to believe 2 years ago a far right
       | supremacist president tried to overthrow democracy and we are
       | supposed to believe the FBI is using this to protect Americans?
        
         | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
         | I think the two aren't closely tied to each other. Here are >15
         | years of stories that show an fairly unbroken line of this
         | particular abuse.
         | https://www.google.com/search?q=site:techdirt.com+"fbi"+"702...
        
         | dwringer wrote:
         | Tbf he did fail, was prevented from going himself in person,
         | and over a thousand of the people that he got to go have all
         | been arrested as a result now.
        
         | djfobbz wrote:
         | You are living proof that propaganda works. Thanks for
         | confirming.
        
           | HyperSane wrote:
           | What propaganda?
        
         | anonymousiam wrote:
         | The FBI has been mum, but some sources indicate a large FBI
         | presence among the Capitol rioters, and some incitement by them
         | too. If true, this would be typical FBI behavior.
         | 
         | https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/08/11/w...
         | 
         | https://www.techdirt.com/2010/11/30/fbi-celebrates-that-it-p...
        
           | pclmulqdq wrote:
           | I don't know why this is particularly contentious or
           | controversial. The FBI played a huge role in the Chicago 7
           | incident in the 70's, which hit progressive democrats. They
           | did the same thing with many other progressive movements in
           | the 70's and 80's. Incitement of riots using informants and
           | undercover agents is a time-honored tradition for the FBI.
        
         | dukeofdoom wrote:
         | yes the insurrection without weapons led by FBI informants.
         | meanwhile the govt is trying to jail the leading opposition
         | candidate for 100 years is not overthrowing democracy?
        
           | HyperSane wrote:
           | Trump shouldn't blatently commit crimes if he doesn't want to
           | be charged with them.                   Willful retention of
           | national defense information: This charge, covering counts
           | 1-31, only applies to Trump and is for allegedly storing 31
           | such documents at Mar-a-Lago.              Conspiracy to
           | obstruct justice: Trump and Nauta, along with others, are
           | charged with conspiring to keep those documents from the
           | grand jury.              Withholding a document or a record:
           | Trump and Nauta are accused of misleading one of their
           | attorneys by moving boxes of classified documents so the
           | attorney could not find or introduce them to the grand jury.
           | Corruptly concealing a document or record: This pertains to
           | the Trump and Nauta's alleged attempts to hide the boxes of
           | classified documents from the attorney.         Concealing a
           | document in a federal investigation: They are accused of
           | hiding Trump's continued possession of those documents at
           | Mar-a-Lago from the FBI and causing a false certificate to be
           | submitted to the FBI.              Scheme to conceal: This is
           | for the allegation that Trump and Nauta hid Trump's continued
           | possession of those materials from the FBI and the grand
           | jury.              False statements and representations: This
           | count concerns statements that Trump allegedly caused another
           | one of his attorneys to make to the FBI and grand jury in
           | early June regarding the results of the search at Mar-a-Lago.
           | False statements and representations: This final count
           | accuses Nauta of giving false answers during a voluntary
           | interview with the FBI in late May.
           | 
           | According to the indictment, each one of those charges
           | carries a maximum fine of $250,000, with maximum prison
           | sentences between five and 20 years.
        
             | creato wrote:
             | Some of which that Trump himself signed into law,
             | specifically because he was trying to jail _his_ political
             | opponent at the time.
        
             | dukeofdoom wrote:
             | either Trump, the only elected official of the executive
             | branch has the highest authority over the executive branch
             | or the archivist has a higher authority than him? if the
             | latter is true, then effectively your third branch is no
             | longer run by a president. The documents where created by
             | his administration. He can have a copy as much as you can
             | have a copy of your business record or tax returns. Further
             | every dictator in existence was claiming to rule under the
             | authority of the law, and claimed arrest opposition
             | candidates under such authority. Resorting to arresting
             | your opposition rings hallow to anyone with some shred of
             | common sense.
        
               | HyperSane wrote:
               | You are speaking complete rubbish. Trump didn't have a
               | right to those docs, and he knew it. And speaking of
               | dictators, Trump did try very hard to overturn a fair
               | election he lost.
               | 
               | Indictment says Trump lied, schemed to keep highly
               | classified secrets The former president faces 37 criminal
               | charges. His longtime valet, Walt Nauta, faces six
               | charges. Former president Donald Trump stashed sensitive
               | intelligence secrets in a bathroom, his bedroom and a
               | ballroom at Mar-a-Lago, according to a scathing 49-page
               | indictment unsealed Friday against him and a loyal
               | servant who is accused of lying to cover up his boss's
               | alleged crimes.
               | 
               | The grand jury indictment tells a story of hubris and
               | hypocrisy, describing a wealthy former president living
               | among neck-high stacks of boxes with classified documents
               | scattered inside them, sometimes literally spilling out
               | of their containers. In the prosecutors' telling, neither
               | Trump nor any of his aides or lawyers appeared bothered
               | by the sprawl of sensitive papers until government agents
               | came calling. Then, the former commander in chief
               | allegedly set out to hide some of what he had.
        
               | acdha wrote:
               | Trump is not above the law. At least some of the
               | documents (nuclear secrets) are not ones that the
               | president has the legal right to declassify - the statute
               | specifically limits that process - so his only option
               | would have been to pardon himself, but he didn't even
               | want to admit having done this at the time and likes to
               | pretend that he's innocent, so he didn't.
        
               | HyperSane wrote:
               | Shocked by how many Trump Cultists are on Hacker News.
        
               | acdha wrote:
               | There's been an intense, well-funded libertarianism
               | outreach effort for decades and it's been especially
               | pronounced in the tech sector where relatively high wages
               | and negotiating power let a lot of people tell themselves
               | that they're in the same group as their CEO, and should
               | vote to give them a tax cut (surely I'll need that, too!)
               | and freedom from paying for externalities, etc. That
               | meant voting for Republicans over the years and saying
               | that the people they voted for probably wouldn't really
               | do all of the anti-liberty things they promised to do.
               | 
               | After doing that, for some it's easier to support Trump
               | than admit making so many mistakes for years. There's an
               | entire media empire devoted to supporting that decision.
        
               | pessimizer wrote:
               | Shocked by how easy it was to convince liberals that the
               | Espionage Act was a wonderful thing. The ACLU was started
               | to oppose it.
        
           | pessimizer wrote:
           | Mobility scooters can be dangerous. Also, the rioting
           | insurrectionist revolutionaries that dropped dead of heart
           | attacks could have caused a tripping hazard.
        
           | autoexec wrote:
           | > yes the insurrection without weapons
           | 
           | https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/977879589/yes-capitol-
           | rioters...
        
       | deviantbit wrote:
       | Secret courts have no place in the United States. The
       | constitution guarantees you the right to defend yourself against
       | an accuser (5A). You are not allowed to be in that court when
       | you're accused. Also, the government is prohibited from
       | unreasonable search and seizures (4A). When they get a court
       | order, you're not allowed to defend against. FISA has never been
       | before the Supreme Court, as you need a defendant. Since the
       | court is secret, and no defendants allowed, it is never going to
       | the supreme court. If you're accused, and go to trial, FISA
       | evidence remains secret, and discovery is never given to your
       | attorney. When you're on the receiving end of this, you will beg
       | for your rights. The government has unlimited power, and
       | resources to destroy you.
        
         | jazzyjackson wrote:
         | > FISA has never been before the Supreme Court, as you need a
         | defendant. Since the court is secret, and no defendants
         | allowed, it is never going to the supreme court.
         | 
         | Golf clap for the chum who yanked this loophole
        
         | supernova87a wrote:
         | Do you take the position that there is no role / need
         | whatsoever for a court in the United States that needs to hear
         | confidential matters having to do with law enforcement, where
         | to reveal it to the subject would compromise the investigation?
         | 
         | I think your desire to paint it as some evil government
         | bogeyman + some philosophy that everything should be open is
         | over simplistic and honestly a little naive in how a country
         | needs to defend itself.
         | 
         | Now I am no fan of all that the FISA court has allowed. There
         | are legitimate criticisms of how the lack of transparency has
         | allowed some rubber stamping of investigations without good
         | adversarial oversight.
         | 
         | But to fundamentally assert that such a court should not exist
         | is a bit ridiculous.
         | 
         | You might as well suggest that every time before knocking down
         | the door of a drug dealer, the drug dealer's attorney must be
         | notified and get a chance to argue against the search warrant
         | in front of the issuing judge, because in a couple of cases,
         | they knocked on the wrong person's door.
        
           | ch4s3 wrote:
           | That you think the government should be in the business of
           | kicking in doors without due process over mere chemical
           | intoxicants is telling. It is anathema to the founding
           | ideals, and historically illiterate with respect to alcohol
           | prohibition.
        
           | mu53 wrote:
           | Looking back through history, the abuses that happen behind
           | closed doors always outweigh the negatives of transparency.
           | 
           | The inconvenience of being targeted by an illegal search
           | warrant is nothing compared to what is going on right now.
           | Political repression, killings, extreme corruption, and
           | dictators want secret courts.
        
       | tomohawk wrote:
       | The past several years have shown that while the intentions of
       | FISA are probably good, it is too easy to abuse.
       | 
       | The FBI and many high government officials have abused FISA again
       | and again. Crossfire hurricane is just one obvious instance.
       | 
       | The FISA court has admonished FBI officials for the abuse, but
       | that's about it.
       | 
       | If they're going to have FISA, there needs to be real penalties
       | for abuse. Loss of position. Prison time. There needs to be real
       | consequences for breaking the laws on this.
       | 
       | Otherwise, it need to go.
        
         | 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
         | The FISA process is seeing a lot of much needed scrutiny
         | because of perceived political persecution towards Republicans
         | and Trump. I think it'll be a good thing whether or not
         | Republicans intentions are selfish or noble.
        
         | pessimizer wrote:
         | > The past several years have shown that while the intentions
         | of FISA are probably good
         | 
         | When did the past several years show this?
        
         | wahnfrieden wrote:
         | The state won't subjugate and punish itself
        
         | drewcoo wrote:
         | FISA originated as a response to Nixon's snooping, as an
         | attempt to secure Americans' privacy against potential threats
         | from (rogue elements of?) the government.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_Intelligence_Surveilla...
         | 
         | I agree that Ted Kennedy had good intentions in 1978. The stuff
         | today is out of control and completely contrary to the original
         | intent.
        
         | xbar wrote:
         | It's been this way for decades. Consider Feinstein's permanent,
         | steadfast, and sweeping support. She asked completely a
         | performative set of "questions" about its abuse in 2017, along
         | with a lot of pro-702 data.
         | 
         | Mostly, she was chock full of softballs under the false
         | pretense of being concerned about privacy, that obviously led
         | to no improvement.
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Fa-G6pGmI
         | 
         | Laws like 702 of FISA and the Patriot Act seem to be 2 of the
         | 1,000 cuts against the legitimacy of government.
        
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