The House GOP Caucus descended into recriminations and near civil war Monday (must be a day ending in "y") as Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to abandon his strategy for renewing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (House Republicans Reject Speaker Johnson's 'Queen of the Hill' Plan for Surveillance Reforms). This places the bill's fate in limbo as it is due to expire on December 31. The sad thing is there is no reason for the GOP to have fought each other over this issue.

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is a provision that authorizes the collection of foreign intelligence information from non-U.S. persons outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information.

Under Section 702, various intelligence agencies, particularly the National Security Agency (NSA), are allowed to collect communications such as emails and other electronic communications that involve foreign targets. However, it's important to note that while the primary target is non-U.S. persons outside the U.S., this collection can incidentally gather information about Americans who might be communicating with the targeted individuals or almost anyone.

There are specific procedures and oversight mechanisms allegedly in place to minimize the collection and retention of information about Americans and mask the indemnity of Americans if their information is collected. The operative word is "allegedly."

As we saw during the "Russia Hoax," by using a foreign actor, the Obama Justice Department was able to use FISA to penetrate Trump's campaign headquarters and then his presidential transition team. Former FBI General Counsel James Baker Tries to Gaslight Us on the Russia Hoax and it Doesn't Work. Section 702 has provisions for "two-hop" and "three-hop" surveillance; that is, not only is the target under surveillance, but the NSA can monitor anyone he communicates with and, sometimes, anyone those people communicate with. See Don't Look for What Questions the DOJ IG Report Asks, Look for the Ones It Avoids. 

While sold to Congress as a way of thwarting terrorist attacks, Section 702 had been a widespread source of abuse. Information gathered from internet service providers and transmission hubs allows the communication of every internet user to be monitored; this is called "upstream collection." There is also "downstream collection," where tech companies allow the NSA to scour their data. Another abuse is the aptly named "backdoor searches," where computers scan masses of email communications, I can't imagine AI not being involved now, and specific words and phrases flagged for investigation.

According to the Washington Examiner, a debate over two versions of the bill, one from the House Judiciary Committee and one from the Intelligence Committee ended up in shouting and name-calling.

The original plan was to put both bills on the floor and allow members to vote for them, and whichever one received the most votes would be the one the House advanced.

But after a heated conference meeting where Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH), who sits on the Judiciary Committee and helped craft that version of the bill, accused Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) of “f***ing lying” about the judiciary bill, the tides started to shift away from the “queen of the hill” scenario.

As a former commander of mine used to say about military police officers, "Giving a 19-year-old a badge and a gun and telling him to enforce the law is like giving a three-year-old a can of gas and a book of matches." Given highly partisan organizations like the FBI and the Department of Justice, you can't be surprised when they use the tools intended to stop terrorism to keep tabs on critics.

Here is House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner gaslighting his FoxNews audience on what it means.

Congress cannot let Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expire at the end of December.

Today, I told @FoxBusiness’ @MariaBartiromo that @HouseIntel’s legislation fixes previous FISA abuses and only applies to foreign nationals located outside the U.S. pic.twitter.com/tqBWUDbAAY

— US Rep. Mike Turner (@RepMikeTurner) December 8, 2023

Note how smoothly he changes the subject of Americans being vulnerable to surveillance anytime they talk to a foreigner on an overseas call to "Hamas" and "Hezbollah." If people talking to Hamas were the issue, I'd have no problem, but we all know it isn't. 

Here is Glenn Greenwald talking to Senator Mike Lee. I have a lot of issues with Greenwald dating back to his days on DailyKos; that said, he's solid on civil liberties.

‼️ URGENT & ALARMING: The House Intel committee's proposed surveillance bill is nothing but a trojan horse for online privacy/section 702 reform.

As @SenMikeLee explained last night, it would:

1) Extend the FISA 702 reauthorization period by an unprecedented 9 years

2) Fix… pic.twitter.com/3HMkTjzhJF

— System Update (@SystemUpdate_) December 12, 2023

Turner's bill would extend Section 702 for nine new years, not fix any of the warrantless search problems; plus, it will require hotels, fast food places, etc., with public WiFi to hand over user data on demand.

My view is simple. Section 702 needs to go away. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Section 702 must be reauthorized. It is not an ideal framework, but it’s the one we have, and we cannot afford to shut it down in a dangerous world until we have something better. https://t.co/bo8zEBfCIp

— National Review (@NRO) December 12, 2023

We have tried this experiment with warrantless searches and have seen it turn out pretty much as expected. The privacy violations will only increase as AI matures and makes more sophisticated searches possible, and more and more of our lives are conducted using smartphones and various apps. There is no reason to believe that agencies that have violated Section 702 for two decades have suddenly decided to become civil libertarians.

Speaker Johnson should show some leadership and let this bill die. But we know how this movie ends, don't we?