Written by by John Mills at thegatewaypundit.com
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is dead for the time being, due to the leadership of presumptive nominee, former President Donald J. Trump. President Trump, of all Americans, knows best and first-hand the weaponization of FISA, especially through Section 702 of the 2008 Amendment to the FISA Act. 2008 was a seminal year which was not coincidental. It was the first official year of the modern mass surveillance environment created by the inauguration of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), started by the Bush Administration, greatly expanded and weaponized by the Obama Administration.
CNCI brought together designs, operational concepts, technology, and most importantly – the marriage and collusion of Big Tech and Big Government. It was created lawfully – but the magic was intoxicating and irresistible – especially for those seeking domestic political advantage. The Director of National Intelligence’s (DNI) public facing infographic was meant to sell Section 702, but actually has some language that is alarming and indicts the effort. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are “compelled” to cooperate – that doesn’t sound right. The “compelled” language also reveals something – the ISPs wanted indemnification – and if you received the email (lead picture), that is their indemnification, but it also means the Intelligence Community is possibly sitting on your home computer watching the Chinese sit on your home computer. What could possibly go wrong?
Another alarming admission of guilt from the DNI infographic related to the need for 702 authorities, according to the DNI product, the old process didn’t work “because the government couldn’t always meet the probable cause standard” – but it was ok because 702 only did mass surveillance on foreign persons outside of the US. That is a bit of word art, 702 allowed the concept of collect first, then mask out American Citizens. However – they’ve already been caught in the net. Masking isn’t a perfect process, analyst’s eyes have already seen or heard something they weren’t supposed to, and data might be found that answers a question. This means the IC might know something on an American Citizen they can’t use in court, but they can back their way into the same evidence via other means.
Susan Rice, the Obama National Security Advisor from 2013 – 2017 used unmasking (or pre-masking?) of 702 collections to help start the Russia fraud in early 2016. Charles McGonigal, the disgraced and convicted former Director of Counterintelligence for the FBI’s New York Office was likely part of this as well as the Clinton Campaign. Trump Advisors General Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Carter Page, and others were targeted by the Susan Rice led group which also likely shared information with Jake Sullivan, a top advisor to the Clinton campaign for their portion of Russia Gate. This was unconstrained political warfare with no punishment or accountability – FISA failed to prevent this abuse and failed the nation.