A top official at the FBI wants agents to increase FISA warrantless surveillance of Americans, WIRED magazine has reported.
“Obtained by WIRED, an April 20 email authored by FBI deputy director Paul Abbate to employees states: ‘To continue to demonstrate why tools like this are essential to our mission, we need to use them, while also holding ourselves accountable for doing so properly and in compliance with legal requirements.’ [Emphasis his.]”
Abbate’s message continued, “I urge everyone to continue to look for ways to appropriately use US person queries to advance the mission, with the added confidence that this new pre-approval requirement will help ensure that those queries are fully compliant with the law.”
As WIRED noted, the FBI disputed the magazine’s reporting on Abbate’s email and pointed to the recent reauthorization of FISA warrantless surveillance mechanisms by Congress.
The policies in question are authorized by Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
As The New American’s constitutional scholar, Joe Wolverton II, J.D., has pointed out, FISA is a very concerning “potential violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
“FISA allows for secret surveillance and wiretapping of American citizens without the requirement of probable cause,” wrote Wolverton. “The Fourth Amendment, however, demands that searches and seizures must be conducted upon obtaining a warrant based on probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation.”
Read more of Wolverton’s analysis of FISA here.
