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U.S. Government Using Secretive FISA Rules to Spy on Journalists

posted by takyon on Saturday January 05 2019, @04:00PM   
from the foreignicated-domestic-agents dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

US Government Using Secretive FISA Rules to Spy on Journalists

Documents recently obtained by the Freedom of the Press Foundation reveal troubling facts about how the government is secretly using the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to spy on journalists. The documents were released as part of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed by the Freedom of the Press Foundation and Columbia University's Knights First Amendment Institute. These newly declassified memos confirm suspicions long held by civil liberties advocates that the government is using and abusing FISA court orders to conduct intrusive surveillance on reporters they deem as "foreign agents" and on those reporters' contacts.

By using FISA, the Department of Justice circumvents traditional court systems that have long protected journalists from invasive and illegal spying practices. [...] Memos made public through the FOIA request reveal that it is highly likely that both the Trump and Obama administrations have spied on journalists they considered "foreign agents" and anyone with whom they may have been in contact.

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Original Submission

• Hands up Hands up (Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday January 05 2019, @05:05PM (2 children)

  by Thexalon (636) on Saturday January 05 2019, @05:05PM (#782543)

  Raise your hands, all 5 rubes who are actually surprised by this. Of course they targeted journalists - the Three-Letter Agencies invest a lot of time and our money into covering up their own mistakes, then in covering up the cover-up, then in covering up those cover-ups, etc.

  --
  The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.

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• Re:Hands up (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @08:46PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 05 2019, @08:46PM (#782602)

  I suspect at least half the US gov budget is spent on fixing problems they create for themselves. ~$2 trillion literally down a black hole and they always need more taxes rather than become more efficient or stop fucking up. War on terror -> more terrorists, war on drugs -> more drugs, etc

  Parent

• Re:Hands up (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday January 06 2019, @05:08AM

  by khallow (3766) on Sunday January 06 2019, @05:08AM (#782681) Journal

  Here's one rube [soylentnews.org] who is no-doubt surprised that blowback could possibly happen.

  But if a regulation is superceded or circumscribed by law then that law takes immediate precedence. The President can't decide by Executive Order that the law does not apply - which if you believe Bob Woodward it frustrates Donald Trump quite frequently. And Law can be crafted which would circumscribe or limit what Executive Orders can do, secret or not. When you say "secret", that does not mean nobody in opposition is in the know about it. It can in fact mean opposition lawyers may learn exactly what those regulations say - if the lawyers have the security clearance and are willing to be bound by it. It may be inspected and at the worst case a judge may demand to see it for him or herself and make a ruling from there.
  
  This is VERY different from "No, you don't know who the judge was who ordered it and you do not have to know and neither you nor any opposing counsel will be allowed to learn what the crime against you is - you're just guilty." The system may not be right, nor perfect, but it is NOT a "secret court" or "secret law" as that has been implied in the past.

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