Read

User menu

Search form

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Searched Americans' Emails Without Warrants

U.S. Intelligence Agencies Searched Americans' Emails Without Warrants
Thu, 4/3/2014 - by Taylor Berman
This article originally appeared on Gawker

Last month, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper sent a letter to Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden admitting that the NSA and CIA used a loophole to search the emails and other electronic communications of Americans without a warrant. Clapper defended the searches as legal.

"As you know, when Congress reauthorized Section 702, the proposal to restrict such queries was specifically raised and ultimately not adopted," Clapper wrote in the letter, referring to a 2011 rule change to the FISA Amendments Act. From the New York Times:

A 2008 law, the FISA Amendments Act, legalized the warrantless surveillance program that the Bush administration created after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. The law permits the government to intercept phone calls and emails without a warrant and on domestic soil, as long as the surveillance target is a noncitizen who lives abroad.

In fall 2011, the Obama administration obtained the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for analysts to search for "U.S. person identifiers" in the repository, enabling them to pull out phone calls and emails involving Americans that had been intercepted because the people involved had been in contact with a foreign target.

Sen. Wyden, who has been one of the NSA spying program's strongest critics, called the tactic "unacceptable."

"It is now clear to the public that the list of ongoing intrusive surveillance practices by the NSA includes not only bulk collection of Americans' phone records, but also warrantless searches of the content of Americans' personal communications," Wyden said in a joint statement with Sen. Mark Udall. "Senior officials have sometimes suggested that government agencies do not deliberately read Americans' e-mails, monitor their online activity or listen to their phone calls without a warrant. However, the facts show that those suggestions were misleading, and that intelligence agencies have indeed conducted warrantless searches for Americans' communications using the 'back-door search' loophole in section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act."

The "back-door search" was first revealed last August by the Guardian, who based their report on documents provided by Edward Snowden.

Originally published by Gawker

3 WAYS TO SHOW YOUR SUPPORT

ONE-TIME DONATION

Just use the simple form below to make a single direct donation.

DONATE NOW

MONTHLY DONATION

Be a sustaining sponsor. Give a reacurring monthly donation at any level.

GET SOME MERCH!

Now you can wear your support too! From T-Shirts to tote bags.

SHOP TODAY

Sign Up

Article Tabs

What remains unknown is whether post-truth Republicans will succeed in 2024 as the Nazis did in 1933.

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Donald Trump, Hitler

Like Hitler, Trump has a unique command of propaganda, a captivating public presence, and he knows how to drive home narratives beneficial to him and harmful to his enemies.

Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

The Florida governor’s humiliating loss has a dark undertone: Most Republicans, and many independents, apparently have a craving for the unchecked lawless vengeance that Trump has promised if he wins a second term.

What remains unknown is whether post-truth Republicans will succeed in 2024 as the Nazis did in 1933.

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Donald Trump, Hitler

Like Hitler, Trump has a unique command of propaganda, a captivating public presence, and he knows how to drive home narratives beneficial to him and harmful to his enemies.

Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

The Florida governor’s humiliating loss has a dark undertone: Most Republicans, and many independents, apparently have a craving for the unchecked lawless vengeance that Trump has promised if he wins a second term.

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Posted 3 weeks 3 days ago

Trump’s brand of hyper-nationalism combined with the intense consolidation of executive power follows the same playbook as fascistic leaders in other countries like India,Russia, Hungary, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and Argentina, among others.

Posted 1 month 3 weeks ago
Donald Trump, Hitler

Like Hitler, Trump has a unique command of propaganda, a captivating public presence, and he knows how to drive home narratives beneficial to him and harmful to his enemies.

Posted 1 month 1 week ago

What remains unknown is whether post-truth Republicans will succeed in 2024 as the Nazis did in 1933.

Posted 1 week 2 days ago

Based on details that have emerged about Trump’s presidential agenda, the far-right Heritage Foundation plans for the next GOP president to have all the tools necessary to demolish multicultural democracy and establish a white, Christian ethnostate that imposes a gender apartheid not unlike the Taliban’s Afghanistan.