White House Panel Calls Out FBI’s Misuse of Spy Tool
Jose Nino
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) access to a sensitive intelligence batch of intercepted emails, texts, and other electronic data must be restricted after it has made several repeated malfeasances that have eroded public and congressional trust in the spy tool. That is the conclusion a White House panel of intelligence advisers reached about this surveillance tool.
The panel’s recommendation, in addition to other suggestions, represent a challenge to the Biden regime, which has spent months aggressively pushing elected officials to maintain the spying program, which is slated to expire at the end of 2023. Democrats and Republicans have both agreed that this tool poses a threat to Americans’ privacy despite its use as a national security tool.
The issue at hand in this case is the FBI’s access to a stash of data gathered under what is known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The President’s Intelligence Advisory Board, which is made up of current and former officials and security pundits suggested that the FBI’s searches be restricted to foreign intelligence purposes, which is standard operating procedure at other American intelligence agencies that can gain access to the intercepted data, and no longer allow searches for evidence of a crime in cases not dealing with national security.
Although the board criticized previous FBI abuses of the database, the board cautioned that not renewing the surveillance tool, as some elected officials have threatened, would be disastrous as it would hamstring intelligence agencies’ ability to confront the multiple security threats the US is currently facing.
“If Congress fails to reauthorize Section 702, history may judge the lapse of Section 702 authorities as one of the worst intelligence failures of our time,” the panel stated.
Section 702 is set to expire at the end of 2022, unless Congress votes to renew it. Leading officials in the Biden regime have argued that the program is one of the most valuable national security tools for the US government. It’s used to combat terrorism, scuttle cyberattacks, and understand the geopolitical goals of strategic rivals such as China and Russia.
It’s good to see both parties in Congress call out the FBI. This institution must be placed under the microscope and take it to task for its political misbehavior. Criticizing the FBI is just the first step.
Next up should be the defunding and the eventual abolition of the FBI. It’s the only path towards keeping the FBI truly in check.
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