Thursday, December 26

Tag: FBI

House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program
12Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

House Votes to Extend—and Expand—a Major US Spy Program

A controversial US wiretap program days from expiration cleared a major hurdle on its way to being reauthorized.After months of delays, false starts, and interventions by lawmakers working to preserve and expand the US intelligence community’s spy powers, the House of Representatives voted on Friday to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for two years.Legislation extending the program—controversial for being abused by the government—passed in the House in a 273–147 vote. The Senate has yet to pass its own bill.Section 702 permits the US government to wiretap communications between Americans and foreigners overseas. Hundreds of millions of calls, texts, and emails are intercepted by government spies each with the “compelled assistance” of US communication...
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Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program
10Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

Trump Loyalists Kill Vote on US Wiretap Program

For the third time since December, House Speaker Mike Johnson has failed to wrangle support for reauthorizing a critical US surveillance program, raising questions about the future of a law that compels certain businesses to wiretap foreigners on the government’s behalf.Johnson lost 19 Republicans on Tuesday in a procedural vote that traditionally falls along party lines. Republicans control the House of Representatives but only by a razor-thin margin. The failed vote comes just hours after former US president Donald Trump ordered Republicans to “Kill FISA” in a 2 am post on Truth Social, referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, under which the program is authorized.The Section 702 surveillance program, which targets foreigners overseas while sweeping up a large amount of U...
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US Navy Veteran Who Feds Say Rammed FBI Headquarters Had QAnon-Linked Online Presence
4Apr By adminNo Comments
Technology

US Navy Veteran Who Feds Say Rammed FBI Headquarters Had QAnon-Linked Online Presence

A former Navy submarine technician was arrested after law enforcement says he drove an SUV into the FBI headquarters near Atlanta on Monday afternoon. It is still unclear why the suspect, Ervin Lee Bolling, attempted to force entry into the headquarters, but research conducted by the nonpartisan public-interest nonprofit Advance Democracy and shared exclusively with WIRED has found that accounts believed to be associated with Bolling shared numerous conspiracy theories on social media platforms, including X and Facebook.Just after noon on Monday, Bolling rammed his burnt-orange SUV with South Carolina license plates into the final barrier at FBI Atlanta’s headquarters, wrote Matthew Upshaw, an FBI agent assigned to the Atlanta office, in a sworn affidavit on Tuesday. Upshaw added that aft...
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How to Fix Section 702 Surveillance
12Dec By adminNo Comments
Business

How to Fix Section 702 Surveillance

Congress is still debating how to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and doing it right has never been more important. The risk of terrorism has gone up since Hamas’s massacre in Israel, and the U.S. needs all the intel it can get to detect and prevent future attacks on the American homeland.Section 702 lets the government monitor non-U.S. citizens outside the U.S. to protect national security. The information collected goes into a database that can later be searched by law enforcement. But the authority has come under scrutiny after abuses by some Federal Bureau of Investigation agents who ran searches related to Black Lives Matter protesters and even Members of Congress. Lawmakers want to reauthorize the program while protecting civil libertie...
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A Civil Rights Firestorm Erupts Around a Looming Surveillance Power Grab
29Nov By adminNo Comments
Technology

A Civil Rights Firestorm Erupts Around a Looming Surveillance Power Grab

United States lawmakers are receiving a flood of warnings from across civil society not to be bend to the efforts by some members of Congress to derail a highly sought debate over the future of a powerful but polarizing US surveillance program.House and Senate party leaders are preparing to unveil legislation on Wednesday directing the spending priorities of the US military and its $831 billion budget next year. Rumors, meanwhile, have been circulating on Capitol Hill about plans reportedly hatched by House speaker Mike Johnson to amend the bill in an effort to extend Section 702, a sweeping surveillance program drawing fire from a large contingent of Democratic and Republican lawmakers favoring privacy reforms.WIRED first reported on the rumors on Monday, citing senior congressional aide...
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Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill
10Nov By adminNo Comments
Technology

Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill

Leaders in the United States Senate have been discussing plans to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) beyond its December 31 deadline by amending must-pass legislation this month.A senior congressional aide tells WIRED that leadership offices and judiciary sources have both disclosed that discussions are underway about saving the Section 702 program in the short term by attaching an amendment extending it to a bill that is sorely needed to extend federal funding and avert a government shutdown one week from now.The program, last extended in 2018, is due to expire at the end of the year. Without a vote to reauthorize 702, the US government will lose its ability to obtain year-long “certifications” compelling telecommunications companies to wiretap oversea...
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Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying
8Nov By adminNo Comments
Technology

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

In 1763, the radical journalist and colonial sympathizer John Wilkes published issue no. 45 of North Briton, a periodical of anonymous essays known for its virulent anti-Scottish drivel—and for viciously satirizing a British prime minister until he quit his job. The fallout from the subsequent plan of the British king, George III, to see Wilkes put in irons for the crime of being too good at lambasting his own government reverberates today, particularly in the nation whose founders once held Wilkes up as an idol, plotting a revolt of their own.Wilkes’ arrest boiled the Americans’ blood. Reportedly, the politician-cum-fugitive had invited the king’s men into his home to read the warrant for his arrest aloud. He quickly tossed it aside. At trial, Wilkes explained its most insidious feature:...
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More on the Stifled Hunter Biden Probe
31Oct By adminNo Comments
Health

More on the Stifled Hunter Biden Probe

House Republicans continue to unpack the Justice Department’s botched Hunter Biden probe, and evidence is mounting of interference from the top. The latest testimony comes from an Oct. 23 Judiciary Committee interview with former U.S. Attorney Scott Brady.In January 2020, then Attorney General Bill Barr tapped Mr. Brady to vet information related to Ukrainian corruption, and to pass along credible material to offices with ongoing investigations. That included Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who for five years has been probing Hunter’s foreign business operations, including his work for the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Mr. Brady says in the transcript we’ve reviewed that FBI headquarters and Mr. Weiss’s office made this very difficult.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All...
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