I tend to think that FISA abuses are overstated. I do see a need for the program but I'd be okay with reforming it. We need some way to make sure that intelligence services can legally monitor communications between Americans and people/organizations abroad, otherwise the government may have to answer questions on why the IC missed another terror attack at home. It's a balancing act between too much surveillance and not enough.
How much abuse is tolerable when there’s no public transparency? Do you think a secret court’s worst public transgressions represent the entirety of its abuse? Have you read the Rockefeller Commission report?
I was thinking of the claims of FISA abuse from Trump era cases. A lot of that investigation was ultimately justified.
I don’t doubt that there’s some abuse and that the system could be improved with reform, but whether it’s under FISA or something else, we need tools to investigate Americans who are in contact with bad actors overseas.
We have tools. The FBI has tools. The FBI has increasingly assumed a mantle of overseas counterintelligence. It's mandate is to investigate potential foreign influence on American citizens and institutions. FISA is the wrong forum for the FBI. As much as I'd like to see everything investigated, there needs to be a wall between foreign and domestic. FISA breaks the wall.
Maybe the wall should be congressional oversight without the normal grandstanding of House and Senate hearings. This would be a good format for bi-partisan cooperation. If the congress critters behave honestly, it could be done. The executive branch could be coerced to clean up its act without a lot of publicity. No finger pointing, no name calling, just facts. Maybe someday we will get there.
The worst is that some FISA judges are so incurious they accept the FBI reasons for a warrant without asking probing questions. But you are correct. No abuse of governmental authority is acceptable. There has been some of that in every administration I remember except the Eisenhower years and then I probably just got interested in girls and missed something.
Trump's team might have been somewhat savvy but that doesn't mean Trump listened to them. Mr. Trump overestimated his ability to deal with political animals. James Comey said as much.
I tend to think that FISA abuses are overstated. I do see a need for the program but I'd be okay with reforming it. We need some way to make sure that intelligence services can legally monitor communications between Americans and people/organizations abroad, otherwise the government may have to answer questions on why the IC missed another terror attack at home. It's a balancing act between too much surveillance and not enough.
How much abuse is tolerable when there’s no public transparency? Do you think a secret court’s worst public transgressions represent the entirety of its abuse? Have you read the Rockefeller Commission report?
I was thinking of the claims of FISA abuse from Trump era cases. A lot of that investigation was ultimately justified.
I don’t doubt that there’s some abuse and that the system could be improved with reform, but whether it’s under FISA or something else, we need tools to investigate Americans who are in contact with bad actors overseas.
We have tools. The FBI has tools. The FBI has increasingly assumed a mantle of overseas counterintelligence. It's mandate is to investigate potential foreign influence on American citizens and institutions. FISA is the wrong forum for the FBI. As much as I'd like to see everything investigated, there needs to be a wall between foreign and domestic. FISA breaks the wall.
Maybe the wall should be congressional oversight without the normal grandstanding of House and Senate hearings. This would be a good format for bi-partisan cooperation. If the congress critters behave honestly, it could be done. The executive branch could be coerced to clean up its act without a lot of publicity. No finger pointing, no name calling, just facts. Maybe someday we will get there.
The worst is that some FISA judges are so incurious they accept the FBI reasons for a warrant without asking probing questions. But you are correct. No abuse of governmental authority is acceptable. There has been some of that in every administration I remember except the Eisenhower years and then I probably just got interested in girls and missed something.
Trump's team might have been somewhat savvy but that doesn't mean Trump listened to them. Mr. Trump overestimated his ability to deal with political animals. James Comey said as much.