The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.\u00a0 This act was in response to President Richard Nixon\u2019s alleged use of federal resources to spy on political and activist groups.\u00a0 Nixon wasn\u2019t spying on political opponents as much as he was spying on people openly opposed to the Vietnam War.\u00a0 He certainly wasn\u2019t spying on a presidential campaign.\u00a0 In some cases that surveillance was obviously justified, such as when under cover FBI agents attended a Vietnam Veterans Against the War meeting, also attended by John Kerry, that openly discussed assassinating U.S. Senators who supported the war.<\/p>\n
The 1978 law authorized the President to conduct electronic surveillance, for up to one year, but only to acquire foreign intelligence information.\u00a0 This also required that there was no substantial likelihood that this surveillance would acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States Person is a party.\u00a0 In the event the surveillance included a U.S. person, minimization procedures would limit the collection of information and disclosure of the name of the U.S. Person.\u00a0 This also set up a FISA court which is specifically designed to authorize surveillance, if the court finds that the proposed surveillance meets certain minimization requirements regarding information pertaining to U.S. citizens.\u00a0 When you read about \u201cunmasking\u201d<\/em><\/strong> it is referring to this provision of the FISA legislation.<\/p>\n After the 9-11 attack, George W. Bush authorized the surveillance of U.S. persons, if they were in communication with overseas terrorists. In 2006 this was codified by the Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006.\u00a0 In 2007 President Bush pressed for the Protect America Act of 2007, authorizing more surveillance of activity with suspected terrorists overseas.<\/p>\n At the time, I was very concerned.\u00a0 It was obvious that George W. Bush was using this in good faith and these activities were strictly limited to hunting down terrorists.\u00a0 To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever hinted that Bush used this for political purposes.\u00a0 My concern was that Bush could be replaced by someone who showed no such restraint.\u00a0 Sadly, that appears to be exactly what happened.\u00a0 In the spring, summer and fall of 2016 the intelligence agencies appear to have been targeting the Trump campaign and later the Trump transition team.\u00a0 This is exactly the kind of abuse Ted Kennedy was worried about when he lobbied for the original FISA act in 1978.<\/p>\n Unlike their Democratic opponents, Republicans must not try this in the court of public opinion.\u00a0 The important thing is to determine the truth and present the facts to the American people.<\/p>\n When Devin Nunes held his press conference last March, he warned us all about this.\u00a0 Democrats responded by filing an ethics charge against Nunes falsely claiming that he had disclosed classified information.\u00a0 He has been completely exonerated. One could make the case that it is the Democratic Party guilty of obstructing justice.\u00a0 If this is true, then smart (honorable) Democrats better get on board right now, or one will have to seriously question whether the Democratic Party can ever be trusted with national security again.<\/p>\n Republicans have asked Speaker of the House Paul Ryan to declassify all the documents regarding this subject.\u00a0 Lawyers are taught to pound the facts, if you have the facts.\u00a0 Pound the opposition if you don\u2019t have the facts.\u00a0 And if you don\u2019t have the facts and you can\u2019t pound the opposition, just pound.\u00a0 This looks very similar to how the liberal left is responding to all of this.\u00a0 Republicans, on the other hand, are definitely pounding the facts.<\/p>\n It is said that the only thing necessary for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing.\u00a0 That has never been truer than today.<\/p>\n TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1978.\u00a0 This act was in response to President Richard Nixon\u2019s alleged use of federal resources to spy on political and activist groups.\u00a0 Nixon wasn\u2019t spying … Continue reading