The '''Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act''' (FISA) of 1978 with amendments is a post-[[Watergate]] era reform which was intended to prescribe procedures for granting quasi-[[judicial]] authorization for electronic surveillance of persons engaged in [[espionage]], [[terrorism]], weapons or narcotics trafficking. Critics have raised serious questions regarding the protection of Americans' [[4th Amendment]] rights – the right to be secure in your person and effects – in relation to the law. A heavily redacted Under FISA application used to install wiretaps, without justificationif the government makes certain allegations, <ref>being an "agent of a foreign power," member of a terrorist organization or drug cartel, illegal weapons smuggler, acting against the national security interests of the United States, for example.</ref> an adviser American citizen and his or her entire network of personal and electronic contacts, and your contacts' contacts, can be striped of your constitutional rights of due process, right to counsel, and the campaign for right to face your accusers by a court, meeting in secret, without you ever being notified what has happened. Former U.S. Attorney and ''[[Donald TrumpNational Review]] was released late in '' journalist covering [[national security]] Andrew McCarthy writes {{quotebox|FISA authorities are not criminal-law authorities. It is not just that '''FISA is not designed to ferret out evidence of [[crime]]; it is not permitted to be used for that purpose'''. FISA’s objective is the day on Friday, July 21, 2018collection of foreign intelligence, presumably to minimize media attentionthe gathering of information about the actions and intentions of foreign powers that may threaten American interests.<ref>https://www.judicialwatchnationalreview.orgcom/document-archive2018/09/jwtrump-vrussia-dojprobe-fbi-fisa-warrant-docs-00245application/</ref>}}
There exists within the statute a potential that allows for domestic spying on political opponents similar to the abuses which toppled President [[Richard Nixon]].<ref>[http://lawnewz.com/opinion/sally-yates-should-be-investigated-for-her-possible-role-in-watergate-style-surveillance/ Sally Yates Should Be Investigated For Her Possible Role in Watergate-Style Surveillance], by Robert Barnes, February 15th, 2017</ref> Such abuses, and more,<ref>[http://www.gopbuzz.com/blog/2013/04/19/obama-has-achieved-imperial-presidency-that-nixon-wanted-by-georgetown-law-professor-jonathan-turley/ Obama Has Achieved Imperial Presidency That Nixon Wanted], Jonathan Turley, April 19, 2013</ref> have in fact occurred against the campaign of [[Donald Trump]] during the Presidency of [[Barack Obama]].<ref>''New York Times'' reports "In the Obama administration’s last days, some '''White House officials scrambled to spread information about''' Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of '''President-elect Donald Trump''' and Russians — '''across the government.''' [https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/01/us/politics/obama-trump-russia-election-hacking.html?_r=0]</ref> Abuses such as spying on members of Congress,<ref>[http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2017/03/10/kucinich_i_was_wiretapped_as_a_congressman_they_can_certainly_tap_a_presidential_candidate.html Kucinich: I Was Wiretapped As A Congressman, They Can Certainly Tap A Presidential Candidate], Ian Schwartz, March 10, 2017</ref> congressional committees tasked with overseeing agencies that administer the law,<ref>
[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/a-brief-history-of-the-cias-unpunished-spying-on-the-senate/384003/ A Brief History of the CIA's Unpunished Spying on the Senate: President Obama's choice to lead the intelligence agency has undermined core checks and balances with impunity.] CONOR FRIEDERSDORF, DEC 23, 2014</ref> the Supreme Court,<ref><small>[[Daniel Ellsberg]], in responding to a question about why should people care, said: "Do they really believe that real [[democracy]] is viable, when one branch of government, the Executive, knows or can know every detail of every private communication (or credit card transaction, or movement) of: every journalist; every source to every journalist; every member of Congress and their staffs; every judge, at every level up to the Supreme Court? Do they think that every one of these people "has nothing to hide," nothing that could be used to blackmail them or manipulate them, or neutralize their dissent to Executive policies, or influence voting behavior? Is investigative journalism, or aggressive Congressional investigation of the Executive, or court restraints on Executive practices, really possible with that amount of transparency to the Executive of their private and professional lives and associations? And without any of those checks, the kind of democracy you have is that of the German Democratic Republic in [[East Germany]], with its [[Stasi]] (which had a minuscule fraction of the surveillance capability the NSA has now, but enough to turn a fraction of the population of East Germany into secret Stasi informants)."</small>
https://freedom.press/news-advocacy/highlights-from-daniel-ellsbergas-reddit-ama-on-edward-snowden-and-nsa-surveillance/</ref> intimidation of journalists for reporting on the FISA law,<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/criticism/national_security_letters.php When can the FBI use National Security Letters to spy on journalists? That’s classified.] By Trevor Timm, ''Columbia Journalism Review'', JANUARY 11, 2016</ref> and blackmail are either known to have occurred or potentially exist under the law.<ref>https://jonrappoport.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/trump-is-challenging-the-whole-cia-media-nexus/</ref> In 2017 the FBI said they could not assure that the hundreds of people administering programs created by the law would be investigated for [[felony ]] criminal abuses.<ref>
http://www.defenseone.com/politics/2017/03/gop-lawmaker-fbi-stop-leaks-russia-probe-or-lose-key-surveillance-tool/136325/?oref=d-topstory</ref>
Abuses of FISA by the [[Deep State]] are the subject of the "Nunes memo" that a congressional committee voted in January 2018 to release to the public.
==Background==
Title III of The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (Wiretap Act) is directed towards U.S. Citizens.
Title III is not to be confused with FISA Title III. Title III requires Federal, state and, other government officials to obtain judicial authorization for intercepting “wire, oral, and electronic” communications such as telephone conversations and e-mails. It also regulates the use and disclosure of information obtained through authorized wiretapping.<ref>https://www.aclu.org/other/comparison-electronic-surveillance-under-title-iii-and-fisa </ref>
===Origins of FISA===
The creation of FISA courts can be considered as a post-Watergate reform. In Watergate, a White House hired its own outside squad of "Plumbers" to "plug leaks" after it failed to get cooperation from [[J. Edgar Hoover]] due to the new 1968 Wiretap law. Hoover's FBI had a long sordid history of political spying and illegal break-ins at the request of Presidents [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Lyndon Johnson]], and others.<ref>Victor Laskey, [https://archive.org/details/LaskyVictorItDidntStartWithWatergate It Didn't Start With Watergate], Dell, 1977, pp. 156-186</ref> To rein in such governmental and extra-governmental abuses, it was thought the judicial system, or a panel of judges focused on [[national security]], needed to sign-off on the [[Executive branch]]'s use of covert activity.<ref>p[https://archive.org/stream/foia_Sullivan_William_C._-9/Sullivan_William_C._-9#page/n183/mode/2up/search/William+Sessions William C. Sullivan, “Personal Observations and Recommendations on Privacy,“ in Privacy in a Free Society, Final Report, Annual Chief Justice Warren Conference on Advocacy in the United States, June 1974.]</ref>
The use of judges for Executive branch oversight was thought to legitimize and de-politicize the issuance of surveillance warrants, rather than a congressional committee, which may be in the hands of an opposition party. Congressional committees likewise have large staffs and turnover, and the potential for leaks every two year election cycle made the idea of congressional committees approving longterm foreign surveillance operations unrealistic.
Since 2013, an order issued by a FISA court, has required a subsidiary of Verizon to provide a daily, on-going feed of all call detail records – including those for domestic calls – to the NSA.
The FBI/NSA database can be used in real time, or in historic mapping, to monitor people simply by entering their cell phone number and filtering the geolocation. Additionally, texts, call logs, emails, and sensitive electronic communication can all be reviewed by officials using this database.
===No representation for the accused===
*The government may not target someone located outside the United States for the purpose of targeting a particular, known person in this country or any U.S. person (reverse targeting).
*The government may not target for acquisition “any communication as to which the sender and all intended recipients are known at the time of the acquisition” to be in the United States.<ref>https://www.themarketswork.com/2018/04/01/fisa-surveillance-title-i-iii-and-section-702/ </ref>
===Title I authority (counterintelligence)===
[[File:3 hop.PNG|right|500px|thumb|Illustration of how the 3 hop rule works after a FISA warrant is obtained. A typical subject has 50 contacts in their phone or email. The same legal surveillance authority is applied to those 50 contacts, and then to your contacts' contacts.]]
FISA Title I surveillance of a U.S. citizen is the most intrusive, exhaustive and far reaching type of search, seizure and surveillance authority, permitting the FBI to look at every aspect of the targets life. All communication, travel and contact can be opened and reviewed. All aspects of any of the targets engagements are subject to being secretly monitored. This is an entirely different level of surveillance authority, the highest possible, and outside FISA-702 search queries of US persons.
Because FISA Title I surveillance authority against a US citizen is so serious, only a few people are authorized to even apply for such surveillance warrant.
A U.S. person can be deemed the agent of a foreign power under FISA if the government shows probable cause that he or she:<ref>https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/1801 </ref>
{{Quotebox|(A) knowingly engages in clandestine intelligence gathering activities for or on behalf of a foreign power, which activities involve or may involve a violation of the criminal statutes of the United States;
===FISA Title III (physical searches)===
FISA Title III provides for physical searches of premises or property within the United States. Colloquilly known as a "break-in".
{{Anchor|FISA 702}}
===702 queries (Title VII)===
Section 702 permits the government to target for surveillance foreign persons located outside the United States for the purpose of acquiring foreign intelligence information. However
Section 702 addresses American citizens, or "US persons", caught up in foreign surveillance (incidental collection) as well. Section 702 requires "masking" a US persons identity in reports and transcripts. The FISA Court doesn’t doesn't give FISA-702 “warrants”, they give FISA-702 search or surveillance approval. 702 queries are forbidden without FISA court approval. A 702(16) is a phone search query based on “TO” and/or “FROM”. A 702(17) is an email or text query based on “ABOUT”.
A FISA-702(16) Search Result would come from the FBI counter terrorism database or NSA database that returns a US person as the result of a “To” or “From” search. For example, querying phone number TO: BadGuy or FROM: BadGuy might return a list of phone numbers that also contains a US persons' phone number. That US person is protected by the [[Fourth Amendment]]. To look at the “upstream” connections of the US Person to other people, most likely other US persons and citizens, the search operator would need to ask permission of the FISA Court to review the upstream results. If the search was vital to [[national security]], the upstream phone numbers could be reviewed without asking FISA permission first.
Section 702 collection is not subject to individual formal FISA Court approvals. Due to frequency of collection, instead of issuing individual court orders, the FISC approves annual certifications submitted by the [[Attorney General]] and the [[Director of National Intelligence]] that specify categories of foreign intelligence information the government is authorized to acquire.
The DOJ’s DOJ's National Security Division (NSD) maintains oversight of the Intelligence Agencies (such as the FBI) use of Section 702 authority. The NSD and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) jointly conduct reviews of the Intelligence Agencies Section 702 activities every 60 days.
The NSD – with notice to the ODNI – is required to report any incidents of Agency noncompliance or misconduct to the FISA Court.
In the [[Obamagate]] scandal, <ref>[https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2020/03/08/doj-political-surveillance-from-the-irs-in-2011-to-the-fisa-court-in-2016/ DOJ Political Surveillance – From the IRS in 2011 to the FISA Court in 2016], Posted on March 8, 2020 by sundance. theconservativetreehouse.com </ref> 702 "About" queries are known to have occurred using the terms "Michael Cohen travel" which returned an errant result with the wrong "Michael Cohen" having traveled to [[Prague]]. Trump's lawyer provided evidence he never traveled to Prague, with other government sources corroborating the evidence. The episode proved [[Christopher Steele]] received raw FISA 702 data from the FBI, and thus the criminal conspiracy within the Obama administration to violate civil rights and interfere in the 2016 election.
John Carlin was head of DOJ’s DOJ's National Security Division. Surveillance of Trump and associates originated under Carlin’s Carlin's tenure. Carlin announced his resignation on September 27, 2016 after filing the Government’s Government's proposed 2016 Section 702 certifications on September 26, 2016. The filing did not disclose FISA abuses. Carlin was aware NSA chief Mike Rogers odered ordered a compliance audit which uncovered the FISA abuse. The 2016 certifications were scheduled for FISA Court approval on October 26, 2016.
===Woods proceedures===
Woods Procedures were named for Michael Woods, the FBI official who drafted the rules as head of the Office of General Counsel’s Counsel's National Security Law Unit. The goal of Woods Procedures is to ensure accuracy with regard to:
*The facts supporting [[probable cause]].
They were instituted in April 2001 to “ensure accuracy with regard to … the facts supporting probable cause” after recurring instances in which the FBI had presented inaccurate information to the FISA court.<ref>https://fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fisa/fbi082903.pdf</ref>
Prior to Woods Procedures, “[i]ncorrect information was repeated in subsequent and related FISA packages,” the FBI told Congress in August 2003. “By signing and swearing to the declaration, the headquarters agent is attesting to knowledge of what is contained in the declaration.” The FBI’s FBI's complex, multi-layered review is designed for the very purpose of preventing unverified information from ever reaching the court. It starts with the FBI field offices.
According to former FBI agent Asha Rangappa the completed FISA application requires approval through the FBI chain of command “including a Supervisor, the Chief Division Counsel (the highest lawyer within that FBI field office), and finally, the Special Agent in Charge of the field office, before making its way to FBI Headquarters to get approval by (at least) the Unit-level Supervisor there.” At FBI headquarters, an “action memorandum” is prepared with additional facts culled by analytical personnel assigned to espionage allegations involving certain foreign powers.
n November 2002, the FBI implemented a special FISA Unit with a unit chief and six staffers, and installed an automated tracking system that connects field offices, headquarters, the National Security Law Branch and the Office of Intelligence, allowing participants to track the process during each stage.
Starting March 1, 2003, the FBI required field offices to confirm they’ve they've verified the accuracy of facts presented to the court through the case agent, the field office’s office's Chief Division Counsel and the Special Agent in Charge.
All of this information was provided to Congress in 2003. The FBI director at the time, [[Robert Mueller]], also ordered that any issue as to whether a FISA application was factually sufficient was to be brought to his personal attention.<ref>httphttps://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/372233-nunes-memo-raises-question-did-fbi-violate-woods-procedures </ref>
==Obama administration FISA abuse==
:''Main article:'' [[FISA abuse]]
Throughout the [[2016 presidential election]], and well into the first term of President [[Donald Trump]], appointees of President [[Barack Hussein Obama]] illegally used the FISA process to obtain foreign intelligence surveillance warrants on domestic political opponents on behalf of the [[2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign]] and the [[Democratic National Committee]].
A FISA application alleging an American citizen and adviser to the Trump campaign was an "agent of a foreign power" was approved in October 2016,<ref>https://www.judicialwatch.org/document-archive/jw-v-doj-fisa-warrant-docs-00245/</ref> granting the FBI surveillance authority under the "two hop rule" to virtually the entire Trump campaign in 50 states and the [[Trump transition]] team. Confidential screenings and interviews with cabinet appointees and staff members were surveilled by [[Peter Strzok]] and other conspirators in the FBI and DOJ, as were [[Oval Office]] conversations, briefings, and phone calls with foreign leaders after the new president was inaugurated. Many people [[White House]] staffers and personnel throughout other cabinet departments and agencies likewise had both their work and private lives subject to intense FBI intrusions well into the first eight months of the Trump presidency.
Abuses of FISA by the [[Deep State]] are the subject of the "Nunes memo" that a congressional committee voted in January 2018 to release to the public.
===Contractor access===
===NSA compliance audit===
[[File:FISC-Court-5.png|right|350px|thumb|The FISA court ruled FBI contractors such as [[Dan Richman]] and FusionGPS under its disgraced director, [[James Comey]] , were given illegal unfettered access to raw FISA 702 results.]]
In the [[Obamagate]] scandal, [[NSA Dir. Mike Rogers]] discovered FISA-702(17) “About Queries” were conducted by the FBI, “contractors” and “individuals”, for reasons that had nothing to do with national security and the FBI did not notify the FISA court for approval. The FISA-702 “About Searches” returned information on Americans. Those results were passed on to people outside government. Those 702 (American Citizen) results were not “minimized” and exposed the private data of the American citizens.
===Fraud against the court===
In October 2016 the DOJ and FBI then took the ''Steele dossier'', full circle, back to the FISA Court to gain retroactive surveillance authority and approval upon the Trump campaign and Donald Trump. Immediately after the DOJ lawyers formatted the information for a valid FISC application, the head of the DOJ National Security Division, Asst. Attn. Gen. [[John P Carlin]], left his job. Carlin’s Carlin's exit came as the DOJ-NSD and NSA Dir. Mike Rogers informed the FISA court that frequent unauthorized FISA-702 searches had been conducted.
All the intelligence information the Obama DOJ and FBI collected via their illegal FISA-702 queries, combined with the intelligence [[FusionGPS]] created during their earlier contractor access to FISA-702(17) “about queries”, was the intelligence data delivered to Christopher Steele for use in creating the ''Steele dossier''.
*[[Intelligence Community]]
*[[Obamagate timeline]]
*[[FISA abuse timeline]]
*[[Obamagate timeline 2009-2015]]
*[[Media-intelligence complex]]
*Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, [https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1237833-pclob-section-702-report.html Report on the Surveillance Program Operated Pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act], July 2, 2014
*Link to the [https://www.pclob.gov/library.html Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board] site pclob.org
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahK0j17uq20&feature=youtu.be The FISA Swamp], John Spiropoulos, March 3, 2020. youtube
{{Deep State}}
[[Category:United States Law]] the
[[Category:Trump-Russia Collusion Hoax]]