(Washington) A surveillance program designed to counter foreign threats continues to be used heavily against U.S. citizens, with 278,000 requests improperly made by the FBI in recent years, according to court documents released Friday.
These “non-compliant” requests notably targeted people arrested on the sidelines of the major anti-racist demonstrations of 2020, victims of crime, or participants in the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, writes the court responsible for overseeing the activities of spying in a document redacted many details.
FBI agents have dug into a database set up to collect information on the communications of foreign nationals – who do not benefit from the same legal protections as Americans – in the context of the fight against terrorism or any foreign threat .
These requests are addressed to the National Security Agency (NSA), which is responsible for collecting these emails, photos, videos, and other documents. It has acknowledged in the past that data on Americans was also collected indirectly or inadvertently.
Law enforcement agencies have the right to use it to gather information about foreign threats or evidence of crime. But, according to the court, they exceeded this framework.
According to his inventory, sent to the FBI to ask him for reforms, an agent even asked for information on 19,000 donors who had contributed to the campaign of a candidate for Congress.
The revelations come as Section 702 of the Outdoor Surveillance Act (Fisa) — which created these surveillance programs — is about to expire and many elected officials are reluctant to renew it as it stands.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden was moved in a statement by these “shocking abuses of the law”. “If section 702 were to be renewed, it would have to be reformed to ensure better controls, in order to put an end to these abuses,” he added.