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Congress reauthorized America’s warrantless wiretapping program last month after some successful fearmongering by national security hawks on Capitol Hill. But an internal FBI email, leaked to Wired on Wednesday, may accidentally reveal how the federal law enforcement agency plans to overstep the spirit of the law, while technically maintaining the letter of the law.
The controversial spying program is Section 702 in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and allows the interception of foreign communications that sometimes include American citizens. The program ostensibly includes safeguards to ensure the law isn’t being used to unnecessarily spy on Americans, but it’s pretty clear from this new email that the FBI likes being able to get communications from Americans.
The email obtained by Wired dated April 20 was written by FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate and sent out to employees internally.
“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,” the email reads, according to Wired, which notes that the italicization on the word “use” was in the original email.
The FBI email made things even more explicit by encouraging searches for Americans when looking through intercepted communications.
“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,” the email reads.
The FBI’s response to Wired is particularly interesting, making it worth quoting at length. From Wired:
Following publication, FBI spokesperson Susan McKee provided a statement from the bureau that mischaracterized WIRED’s reporting, inaccurately claiming it “alleged that that the FBI instructed its employees to violate the law or FBI policies.” The statement added that Abbate’s email “emphasized Congress’ recognition of the vital importance of FISA Section 702 to protect the American people and was sent to ensure that FBI personnel were immediately aware of, and in compliance with, the privacy enhancing changes the law has put in place.”
Obviously, the FBI is going to say everyone at the agency follows the law since they quite literally are the law. But Wired spoke with Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California who notes this newly leaked email “directly contradicts earlier assertions” by the FBI when the agency was trying to get the law reauthorized.
It’s all a mess. The FBI got exactly what it wanted with the reauthorization of Section 702, something that was never really in doubt, even with pressure from a handful of politicians who opposed it. To paraphrase former president Richard Nixon, it’s not illegal when the FBI does it. But what are you going to do in such a ridiculous system
