The U.S. intelligence community faces a hard battle to renew foreign surveillance powers that have enabled authorities to repeatedly access private information about Americans despite constitutional protections.
The Biden administration wants to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a warrantless wiretapping program introduced in 2008, which was last renewed in 2018 and is due to expire at the end of the year.
“Without Section 702, we will lose critical insights into the most significant threats to our nation,” said General Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, in a speech launching the Biden administration’s defense of what he described as “irreplaceable insights” on Thursday. U.S. espionage insights gleaned from Section 702 have prevented weapon components from reaching adversaries, thwarted threats to U.S. troops, and disrupted cyber and terrorist attacks, including a 2009 foiled plot against the Manhattan subway, Nakasone said.
