December, 07 2023, 12:42pm EDT
Congressional Leaders Threaten to Betray Bipartisan Support by Ramming Controversial FISA Authority through NDAA
Despite the House Judiciary Committee moving forward the Protect Liberty and End Warrantless Surveillance Act (H.R. 6570) just yesterday on a 35-2 vote, Congressional leaders are threatening to betray broad bipartisan support for surveillance reform by ramming through reauthorization of Section 702 in the NDAA. According to the FISA Court, Section 702 has been "abused on a 'persistent and widespread' basis." The bill (H.R. 6570) supported by the vast majority of the House Judiciary Committee reauthorizes Section 702, as the administration has demanded, but with meaningful privacy protections for people in the United States, notably closing the backdoor search loophole and the data broker loophole.
In response to Congressional leaders attempting to undermine the bipartisan support for major reforms to Section 702, Demand Progress Policy Director Sean Vitka issued the following statement:
"Congressional leaders should not betray the broad, bipartisan support for surveillance reform by jamming Section 702 into the NDAA. It would perpetuate staggering abuses of Americans’ privacy, including wrongfully spying on protestors, politicians, journalists, and thousands of others. The key concern is that the government will recertify the authority for an additional year, no matter the deadline in the NDAA, meaning the administration is trying to trick Congress into allowing Section 702 surveillance to continue into 2025.”
As context, here are examples of the recent, unlawful abuse of Section 702, which this reauthorization would perpetuate into 2025:
- "[T]ens of thousands" of baseless searches "related to civil unrest" in a one-year period
- including 141 racial justice protestors and thousands of January 6 suspects.
- Searches for individuals an NSA analyst had met on an online dating site, and a prospective tenant."
- Searches for a state court judge who reported civil rights violations to the FBI.
- Searches for places of worship that were intentionally hidden from oversight.
- Searches for a member of HPSCI and a US Senator.
- A "batch" search for 19,000 Congressional donors.
- "Batch" searches that included current and former federal government officials, journalists, and political commentators.
- Searches for people who came to the FBI to perform repairs.
- Searches for victims who came to the FBI to report crimes.
- Searches for business, religious, and community leaders who applied to participate in the FBI's "Citizens Academy."
- Searches for college students participating in a "Collegiate Academy."
- Searches for family members and colleagues.
- Searches for police officer candidates.
- Searches for an individual employed by a defense attorney.
- Searches for a wrongly accused American academic.
- Searches based on a witness's report that two men "of Middle Eastern descent" were loading cleaning supplies into a truck.
- Searches for a local political party.
- "Batch" searches for 1600 Americans "who had flown through an airport during a particular date range and were either traveling to or returning from a foreign country"
- 2,000 searches for "the names and dates of birth of individuals who were registered competitors in an athletic event."
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The president of Portland State University announced Friday that the school would suspend its connections to the military contractor Boeing as campus protests against U.S. colleges' complicity in Israel's war on Gaza intensified.
In an email to students and faculty, PSU president Ann Cudd wrote that while the university has no investments in Boeing, it "accepts philanthropic gifts from the company."
"In consideration of the strong feelings that have been expressed, PSU will pause seeking or accepting any further gifts or grants from the Boeing Company until we have had a chance to engage in this debate and come to conclusions about a reasonable course of action," Cudd wrote.
The announcement came amid an upsurge of campus protests nationwide, with students and faculty walking out of classrooms and setting up encampments in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrations have continued spreading in the face of violent police crackdowns and right-wing attempts to discredit them as antisemitic; one tally shows that protests have taken place on at least 75 U.S. campuses over the past week.
Oregon Public Broadcastingnoted Friday that PSU students and faculty have been pushing the university to cut ties with Boeing for months, citing its connections to Israel. Cudd said at a press conference last month that Boeing donated $150,000 to PSU to name a classroom and that a Boeing executive sits on the advisory board of PSU's business school.
On Thursday night, OPB reported, "a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters, some of whom were holding anti-Boeing signs, set up tents and barricades on Portland State University's South Park Blocks."
"Demonstrators had planned to hold a protest on the PSU campus Monday, but it was not immediately clear if the university's pause on relations to Boeing would change those plans," the outlet observed. One student told OPB that "the funding from Boeing has already been received by PSU for the year, so putting a pause on it doesn't actually do anything."
"It doesn't change anything about the way things are being conducted," the student added.
Boeing is one of the largest military contractors in the world, and Amnesty International has documented at least three cases in which Israeli forces used weaponry made by the company to commit atrocities in Gaza.
In one instance earlier this year, the Israeli military used a GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb manufactured by Boeing to attack a family building in Rafah, killing 18 civilians and wounding eight others. In October, Israel used Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions to conduct a pair of airstrikes in Deir al-Balah, killing more than 43 people from two families—including 19 children.
Students across the country have called on their universities to divest from arms manufacturers like Boeing that are profiting from Israel's U.S.-backed war on Gaza, where the entire population is facing the possibility of famine as Israeli forces impede aid deliveries and prepare for a ground invasion of Rafah.
The Associated Pressreported Friday that Columbia University students who inspired campus demonstrations across the country said they have "reached an impasse with administrators and intend to continue their encampment until their demands are met."
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Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a member of the Munduruku people and a 2023 winner of the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, criticized the demarcation delay.
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