This subject should be on the minds of most Americans who care about their freedoms, which to say that it isn’t because it is not being discussed more by MSM outlets is a major reason why.
Nevertheless, the question of having public debate regarding the FISA Reauthorisation remains to be a contentious issue among those who advocate for the need for serious reforms to the FISA process and due to recent positions taken by various elected officials including AG William Barr should be a concern to most of us who merely are calling for a transparent process and open dialogue about addressing this issue.
First a video from Lou Dobbs who raises good legitimate points in trying to bring urgent awareness to the lack of transparency:
Lou Dobbs reminds everyone tonight about a rapidly approaching FISA reauthorization deadline coming quickly on March 15th without any public input, public hearings, information about current DOJ/FBI corrective measures, or sunlight on the issues.
Appearing tonight with Mr. Dobbs is House Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins who has been trying to draw attention to an upcoming reauthorization and the refusal of House democrats to hold hearings on the need for reform in the wake of yet another IG report hightlighting abuses of the current system.
Linked article:
The second aspect of this issue is the recent position of AG William Barr has taken which basically In what he is advocating for is also troubling in of itself, especially considering that he has come under recent fire for his lack of action in prosecuting those who violated the law in such cases regarding the FISA warrant abuses. His position is that it be renewed and under his leadership no more abuses will occur. Huh? WTF? This is pretty much shear lunacy on his part and doesn’t address the reform issue that should be about implementation of changes needed in stopping the abuse and future abuses by future administrations!
FUBAR!
This is likely the most insufferably short-sighted political position in decades. Faced with years of evidence showing worsening abuses by government officials using the FISA court, U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr says a clean reauthorization bill is the best option because his DOJ and FBI will not abuse it.
Note the import of AG Barr’s position. He is not saying the system * cannot * be abused; and he is not saying that reform isn’t needed to prevent systemic abuse; only that he can give assurances under his tenure FISA data collection and exploitation will * not * be abused. What happens when an administration changes?…. :::: crickets chirping ::::
Dershowitz and Levine have both suggested among other reforms there needs to be a citizens advocate office appointed to review and challenge the warrant applications with a heavy reliance on protecting civil rights. I like the idea.
I am having a very hard time reconciling William Barr’s status quo argument here on this issue. This runs counter to what he was appointed to do and only reinforces the perception by his detractors that he is nothing more than another swamp creature enabler protecting the swamp and is not serious about reforming the DOJ and FBI!
Even if you are right, ignoring the issue for the need to reform the FISA warrant process is a pretty egregious indictment on his part and he has to answer for that as well as our elected officials.
It remains to be seen what is going to be done, but I don’t trust his premise of reauthorisation without first implementation of needed reforms. Saying and doing is two different things.
Well just remember this, what is also complicating matters, is the issue of the court ordered FISC declassification which is suppose to be made public and Trump will have to sign it, which is why they want to get this thing signed without the public seeing it as the FISC will be released. The discussion now is that they may extend this date further out because there are some in the Senate like Rand Paul and Mike Lee that are raising questions and currently are opposed to renewing it without serious redress. Remember the date has already passed (Feb 5th deadline) that Barr was suppose to respond to the FISA court abuses outlined in the OIG report. So there is still quite a bit of time between now and March 15th where a lot can happen!
I completely agree. There have to be reforms with clear and obvious measures taken to prevent future abuse. The Public Advocate if set up correctly would satisfy that in my mind.
I also want to see prosecutions of those that have already violated rights and fabricated evidence.
When you look at the mess called the FISA process as well as the governments ability to collect data on individuals and the promise we will never release who they were monitoring, LOL, how do you reform the processes?
How does the judge issuing the FISA warrant know if the FBI has actually given the court truthful information?
How do you ensure the government doesn’t release information related to Metadata they collect on citizens?
If the timing of he indictments come down is what I expect it will remain front and center all through the summer and into the fall right up to election day and trump will be hammering it at the podium each time a new one comes down essentially vindicating him.
All excellent questions so I will only give you what is only an opinion but what I think should happen.
First, the FBI, the DOJ, the Intelligence agencies as well as the FISA court itself all need to address their own reforms to root out the systemic corruption that is currently plaguing all those institutions. They are not mutually exclusive when trying to address the FISA issue, all have a role to play that feeds off of each other. In other words there are too many hands in the cookie jar that is preventing the right hand from seeing what the left hand is doing sort of speak. So the oversight part is desperately needed in order to implement correctly the reform part of the equation.
There is has to be some sort of oversight that insures that any data collected remains compartmentalized so it insures that such data is not being used for nefarious or political reasons. The only way any kind of reform happens to The FISA processes that insures the integrity of said such collected data remains confidential, is if the hierarchy in place that is both collecting and using such data is strictly adhering to a baseline standard of guidlines set forth by what ever reforms are put into place to insure both security and privacy where any deviation from those established guidelines is met with serious accountability that will carry a heavy consequence for violations of protocols. Individuals looking at data, need to be accounted for every time a request is made to look at such data and a reason has to be given where such reasons is documented with a time stamp code and personal identifier so the request and the person looking at the data his or her identity is known and archived only accessible with some form of bio-metric system to insure that people are not going to try to manipulate the process through illegal impersonation.
I believe the way to solve this problem is two fold.
I think there has to be a vetting process for the FBI to go through before submitting any application to the FISA court. Basically by having a independent committee outside and independent of the FBI, DOJ, as well as the political arena to do that oversight. Those can be people with legal experience that can qualify for high level security clearances that also has experience working in the intelligence industry that can act impartial and can be trusted to perform the correct analysis before submitting any FISA warrant application request by the FBI to the court itself where the judge has the final approval.
There also has to be accountability for the FBI officials and individuals caught for leaking, falsifying documents, or deliberately not following protocols of archival of digital record keeping as required and submitting reports under false pretenses.
This last part is one that is coming under serious criticism recently due to the fact that no one so far has been held accountable for past transgressions, or better put for breaking the law. There has to be serious consequences such as the prospects of doing Hard Time, for criminal convictions of people caught and found guilty violating the FISA process.
Also a final parting thought, there has to be a “cyber bill of rights” enacted for every citizen that will address not only the privacy meta data collection issue, but also hold the tech companies liable as well for violating personal privacy, the two go hand in hand. This essentially is killing two birds with one stone, however, this is an essential issue that is willfully being ignored and for obvious reasons. The problem is the will for advocating and forcing such changes is not there and when you have a complacent society that has given into indifference, the accountability part has no teeth nor fear of reprisal that elected officials no longer worry about. We are about right where Nero was in terms of the plutocrats total self absorbed elitists class of Rome before giving way to its empire total collapse. If we continue to ignore this issue and kick the can down the road, then that road is going to be a road paved to hell and our Republic will certainly be in danger of being destroyed from within. Once Government loses the trust of its citizens, its demise will be inevitable.
I just have no faith in our goverment respecting our civil liberties no matter what “safe” guards they put is place. It’s only a matter of time they corrupt that as well. Not to mention it will also make harder to uncover and hold them accountable.
