FBI Claims It ‘Misused’ Digital Surveillance Tool Over 270,000 Times Between 2020-2021
Don’t trust the government no matter who is in office. Officials don’t like commoners.
The FBI sucks. Government sucks.
Everyone should be furious about this. I don’t want to hear, “Well I don’t have anything to hide.” Let me tell you. The government doesn’t care if you have nothing to hide.
An unsealed document shows the FBI supposedly “misused” a surveillance tool over 270,000 times from May 2020 to January 2021.
The database is Section 702, which is named after the statute that created it:
Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the U.S. government engages in mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans’ and foreigners’ phone calls, text messages, emails, and other electronic communications. Information collected under the law without a warrant can be used to prosecute and imprison people, even for crimes that have nothing to do with national security.
Section 702 is not supposed to be used against Americans or those in America but the whole thing has always been broad.
Looks like it has information on Americans. This is disturbing. The “misuse” happened with people involved in riots and whatnot after George Floyd’s death in May 2020, those at the capitol on January 6th, and 19,000 donors to a congressional candidate.
IN OTHER WORDS: The FBI abuses its powers against everyone except politicians.
The FBI claims it made changes and fixed the problems. It happened due to “a misunderstanding between its employees and Justice Department lawyers about how to properly use” the database.
Okay, bro.
The FISA court has encouraged more changes, though:
The court “is encouraged by the amendments to the FBI’s querying procedures,” Judge Rudolph Contreras of the FISA court wrote in the opinion, which detailed the nearly 300,000 abuses logged between 2020 and early 2021. “Nonetheless, compliance problems with the querying of Section 702 information have proven to be persistent and widespread. If they are not substantially mitigated by these recent measures, it may become necessary to consider other responses, such as substantially limiting the number of FBI personnel with access to unminimized Section 702 information.”
Section 702 expires at the end of the year. It should be hard for Congress to justify renewing the database.
But then again. Congress is government.
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Comments
If they’re willing to admit over 270,000 times, I wonder how many millions of times the actual number is.
The actual number is slightly larger than an iceberg and the number of times that have been acknowledged is tip that is sticking up out of the water.
Would the Bureau have us believe that their personnel believed these activities were allowed before? That it was permissible for them to abuse their authorized access to the database to perform unauthorized queries and violate the privacy rights of uncounted citizens?
Would they further have us believe that, having written one or two more policies, just like those that were ignored in the past, its all fixed now?
The same goes for the “better training and supervision” claims. Those responsible for training and supervision now are the same ones who committed the violations before. Why should we believe better training and supervision will work?
I, for one, don’t buy any of their claims anymore.
Define “mistake”.
To me once or twice is a mistake.
270,000 times?
52 weeks per year, with 5 “workdays” per week, ignoring holidays and weekends, that’s 260 days per year. 270,000 “mistakes” in a year would mean over a thousand per day. But this report addresses only May 2020 to January 2021, or 8 months. Working with an average 22 workdays per month, that’s 176 six days to commit 270,000 violations or 1,534 violations per day.
They want us to believe these are nothing but outliers and mistakes? How about intentional, willful, knowing, and purposeful, violations of federal law and department policies?
These were not “mistakes.”
There is no statute of limitations on treason.
“The FBI abuses its powers against everyone except politicians.”
This is evidence of an efficient use of resources. Why bother surveilling people for evidence of criminal activity when you know their prosecution is highly unlikely?
Oh it abuses politicians
Named President Trump !!!!
“The FBI abuses its powers against everyone except DEMOCRAT politicians.”
FIFY
Add a simple fine of $500 for each occurrence. And set up a court like Traffic Court. And, every time someone misuses surveillance they get fined $500 and it comes out of their pay check.
These guys cannot be fired and won’t ever be prosecuted under existing laws. But, if they start taking a salary hit, this will stop right away.
Uh, they’d just continue to abuse their power and lie until caught, then lie about reforms and go back to abusing their power. This institution is so powerful that it can probably resist attempts at reform if any are even attempted. It ain’t going to be easy to fix, if it’s even possible.
Remember J. Edgar Hoover.
Get the goods on everyone first. Then nobody can touch you.
His stuff didn’t come out until after his death.
The election of Donald Trump saved the nation from tyranny. That is NOT hyperbole.
Everyone Has Missed Real Revelation of the Durham Report: Obama is the REAL ‘Big Guy.’ Obama is the Criminal Mastermind. Obama Committed Treason:
https://www.creators.com/read/wayne-allyn-root/05/23/everyone-has-missed-real-revelation-of-the-durham-report-obama-is-the-real-big-guy-obama-is-the-criminal-mastermind-obama-committed-treason
Remember, this is primarily the National Security Division (NSD). Seven years ago, they were the ones protecting Crooked Hillary and her use of an illegal email server to store classified information, while spying on, and facilitating the RussiaGate attacks on Trump. They knew that Steele was unreliable, that his Dossier had been funded by Clinton and the DNC, and had been concocted over drinks at a bar in Georgetown, and still used the Dossier as the basis for their FISA warrant applications for known CIA asset Page, and presumably used those warrants to electronically surveillance Trump, and his inner circle. They were also heavily involved in, if not orchestrating the MAL raid to vacuum up the documents Trump ordered declassified, that implicated their perfidy and malfeasance. Seven years, and they are still attacking Trump, using powers given them to prevent another 9/11 attack, and not control who lives in the White House.
Whoops. National Security Division of the DOJ working with the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI.
“the FBI supposedly “misused” a surveillance tool over 270,000 times”
Chris Wray should be sentenced to ten years in Gitmo, listening to a 24/7 looped recording of Britney Spears singing “Oops… I Did It Again!”
You don’t say…
In other news… water is wet , the earth orbits the sun, Hillary is a crook and 0bama runs the White House. Oh poor Hillary… lost to a “Clean Negro” and a NYC wheeler-dealer…. some small part of justice.
Obviously getting out in front of even more revelations.
Makes me pine for the days we had a bull faced closet queen as director.
The fight against reauthorization needs to made. I doubt it can be blocked. Perhaps Congress can at least narrow down the approval to a list of dozen or less SR folks who can authorize the request, as well as putting in criminal penalties for misuse and require a misuse to trigger a both an open brief to Intel committee and a classified brief.
Um, 270,000 times isn’t accidental to me, seems quite on purpose.
Let’s start with doing that yesterday. In fact, pull the damned plug entirely and immediately.
Does that put our nation at risk? Why yes. But more at risk than through the total lack of honor and discipline demonstrated by our own intelligence services when it come to respecting our rights? I think not.
The problem is that the US intelligence
Then start explaining how many FBI personnel had access to that info and specifically why, Yes, specifically,
Whoops. Pls ignore last para which is scratch notes.
An edit function would rock.
Completely agree about edit function. Or at least a way to format text.
[Q] “The government doesn’t care if you have nothing to hide.” [/Q]
“Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.” — Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria, Stalin’s counterpart to Hitler’s Himmler.
How many cases were prosecuted using this fruit of the poisoned tree as evidence?
The Eff Bee Eye has become the Cage Gee Bee
All these misuses seem to lean only in one direction.
Wray needs a new career.
How about we make intentional misuse punishable by termination with loss of pension.