Pros And Cons Of FISA

The Controversy of the N.S.A The NSA (National Security Agency) was first established on November 4, 1952 by the executive order of Harry Truman in the hope of decoding German and Japanese codes during WWII. Their electronic surveillance agency had little to no relevance after WWII until after the 9/11 attacks. This is when congress passed the patriot act that was signed by George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. This allowed the president to take extra measures to fight the war against terrorism, which might’ve not been legal prior to this act. The act allowed Bush to bypass certain laws and spy directly on Al-Qaeda by creating the NSA electronic surveillance program. As soon as the NSA electronic surveillance program was created, as far as

FISA, also known as the Foreign Intelligence surveillance act, regulates U.S government agencies’ electronic surveillance. Foreign intelligence surveillance is information that is necessary to protect the U.S or its allies against actual or potential attacks from a foreign power. Basically FISA was put in place to ensure that government surveillance programs are within legal jurisdiction. FISA allows government agencies to get warrants from the FISC (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance court) prior to conducting electronic surveillance. FISA allows a FISC judge to give a warrant to government agencies if "there is probable cause to believe that… the target of the electronic surveillance is a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power (U.S.C. §1805(a)(3)). FISA also permits the president or his delegates to authorize warrantless surveillance if “there is no substantial likelihood that the surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party." (50 U.S.C. §1802(a)(1)). However the NSA has failed to provide probable cause to the FISC and instead has conducted warrantless searches illegally. People started to notice this in 2007 when two lawsuits challenged the surveillance program. According to James Clapper, the current Director of National Intelligence, “All queries were performed pursuant to minimization procedures approved by the FISA court and consistent with the statute and the fourth amendment.” However the Snowden leaks have revealed otherwise. The spy program that Snowden leaked, PRISM, had no constitutional validity; furthermore all surveillance was then found to be warrantless. Ron Wyden, a United States Senator, when speaking about the NSA after the Snowden leaks, said, “This is unacceptable. It raises serious constitutional questions, and poses a real threat to the privacy rights of law-abiding Americans. If a government agency