FBI combed through NSA's trove of Americans' communications WITHOUT a warrant in its search

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9516639/amp/FBI-sifted-troves-foreign-communications-information-American-WITHOUT-warrant.html?__twitter_impression=true

 

The FBI focused many of its warrantless searches - commonly referred to as backdoor queries - on suspected 'far-right' domestic terrorists, The Daily Beast reported.  

It's unclear from the heavily-redacted Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court report whether the FBI uncovered any criminal extremist behavior or made any arrests resulting from the searches.  

In its gathering of 'foreign' communications data, the NSA often sweeps up Americans' communications, too.  

It's unclear how many Americans had their data viewed by the FBI in its search for 'racially motivated' extremists. 

The FISA report did reveal that a single request for data to the NSA from an FBI analyst for information on a suspected domestic terrorists returned 33 hits. 

It's not clear how many other requests were tied to the hunt for alleged racially motivated extremists, nor who at the FBI asked for the data or approved the request.

A senior FBI official told DailyMail.com the FBI had taken 'numerous steps' to comply with the FISA court guidance over the past 18 months. 

The official wouldn't answer other questions on specifics and referred questions to the NSA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). 

An NSA spokesman said it wouldn't comment when reached by the DailyMail.com. A spokeswoman for the ODNI said they had no additional information to what FBI had provided. 

 

Edited April 28, 2021 by Cyberfx1024

[laylalex 7,284]

Everybody should be concerned about these backdoor searches, on the left and the right. The Daily Beast article linked in that Daily Mail article is worth reading (if you haven't already) as it gets a little further into the nitty gritty about the searches without all the pictures that clutter up the page and are distracting.

 

Quote

 

The revelation of the FBI’s continuing backdoor searches comes amid a new debate about passing new domestic terrorism laws in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. That’s something civil libertarians oppose. While the seminal 2008 surveillance expansion known as Section 702 is predicated in large part on permitting NSA to intercept communications from suspected terrorists, the U.S. has only designated foreign entities as terrorists, not domestic ones. For the FBI to search for “racially motivated violent extremists” in NSA dragnets is to risk bypassing congressional debate and expanding the bureau’s remit unilaterally and secretly.

The FBI searches that the FISA Court flagged as alarming occurred before the January 6 insurrection, in the final year of Donald Trump’s presidency.

In an opinion released in 2019, the Court explicitly warned the FBI that its backdoor searches were dubious under the Fourth Amendment, which protects people on U.S. soil against unreasonable government searches and seizures. But this time, the Court was willing to functionally overlook the violations, as they occurred prior to what the FISA Court described as the full implementation of new FBI safeguards that emerged from the earlier opinion.

 

 

[Cyberfx1024 7,980]

1 hour ago, laylalex said:

Everybody should be concerned about these backdoor searches, on the left and the right. The Daily Beast article linked in that Daily Mail article is worth reading (if you haven't already) as it gets a little further into the nitty gritty about the searches without all the pictures that clutter up the page and are distracting.

Exactly my thought as well. I know many on the far-Left have been calling this out alongside the Right

[TBoneTX 45,266]

The Fourth Amendment has finally been taken off life support.

[Dashinka 24,487]

And many laugh when someone suggests there is a "deep state".

[laylalex 7,284]

Just Security has an even better rundown on what's going on: https://www.justsecurity.org/75917/key-takeaways-from-latest-fisa-court-opinion-on-section-702-and-fbi-warrantless-queries/