Citing a senior administration official, Sam Stein reports that members of congress have been briefed 22 times on section 702 of FISA during President Obama’s tenure.
Emphasis mine.
According to the official, the sessions that took place over the course of 14 months starting in October 2011 touched on Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act, which gives the attorney general and director of national intelligence the authority to gather intelligence on non-U.S. citizens for up to one year. Section 702 has been cited by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper as the legal basis for the NSA’s PRISM program, which has allowed the government to track email communication data.
If the outrage is to continue, it would be nice if those who feel slighted by the government could at least clarify who they have concerns for.
Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, President Obama, the tech companies originally named by the Washington post, several members of congress including Al Franken, and administration officials have confirmed that the program is used to gather intelligence on foreign persons under FISA.
If you believe using FISA to gather information of foreign persons is wrong, that is an opinion that you’re entitled to have, but continuing to vaguely imply that Uncle Sam is spying on your every move here inside the United States using a blanket spying program is dishonest and misleading.
The claim that tech companies have provided sweeping direct-access to American’s data with no oversight remains unsubstantiated.