The Senate Must Act Quickly To Reauthorize FISA Section 702

Research | The Leader Board | THE NEWSROOM | Republican LeaderSkip to primary navigation Skip to content×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELL×Close THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELLxxsearchxMENUFacebookTwitterInstagramFacebookTwitterInstagramVisit Senator McConnell's site here THE NEWSROOMRemarks Press Releases The Leader Board Op-Eds Videos SENATE RESOURCESRepublican Senators Committees Congressional Record Congress.gov Senate Floor Webcast ABOUT LEADER McCONNELLxxsearchxMENUHomeTHE NEWSROOMThe Leader Board04.18.24The Senate Must Act Quickly To Reauthorize FISA Section 702Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Is An Essential Tool For America’s Intelligence Community, Which Helps Protect Americans From Terrorist Groups Like Al Qaeda And ISIS, Malicious Actors Like Iran, And Authoritarian Adversaries Like Russia And ChinaSENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER MITCH McCONNELL (R-KY): “Iran’s efforts to kill Americans, compromise our communications and data, and collect intelligence on U.S. soil are well-known. At this point, so are the hundreds of known or suspected terrorists encountered along our borders in just the current fiscal year. At the end of the week, an essential authority America’s law enforcement and intelligence professionals rely on to monitor and mitigate serious threats is set to expire. A crucial window into the activities of those wish Americans harm is set to go dark. Of course, a few days ago, the House passed legislation that reauthorizes Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act before it lapses. This authority should not be controversial. And it should not be conflated with well-known FBI abuses of FISA’s Title One.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 4/15/2024)·         LEADER McCONNELL: “This bill includes the most significant reforms to FISA – both Section 702 and Title One – in a generation. The bill the Senate will receive this week already places firm parameters on the FBI’s ability to query this database of lawfully-collected foreign intelligence for communications that might involve US persons, either as a target or an asset of a foreign terrorist or intelligence operative. It creates further new reporting requirements to increase accountability for abuse and misconduct in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court system, including direct reporting to Congress on adverse personnel actions and noncompliance. And it imposes new, serious criminal consequences for unlawful disclosures of court proceedings.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 4/15/2024) Section 702 Of FISA Is A Critical National Security Tool That Protects AmericansTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “As the violent return of ISIS shows, enemies around the world still want to kill Americans. With the decline of U.S. human intelligence and limits on interrogation, electronic surveillance is the best remaining U.S. anti-terror authority. The danger is that in trying to protect Americans from the FBI, lawmakers could make it harder to protect Americans from ISIS. Republicans shouldn’t want responsibility for crippling U.S. surveillance amid the world’s proliferating threats. If 702 lapses, the White House won’t hesitate to blame the GOP if there is a terrorist attack.” (Editorial, “A FISA Surveillance Compromise Worth Passing,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/09/2024)HOUSE SPEAKER MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): “When I was a member of Judiciary, I saw all of the abuses of the FBI — there were terrible abuses, over and over and over … And then when I became Speaker, I went to the SCIF and got the confidential briefing from sort of the other perspective on that, to understand the necessity of Section 702 of FISA and how important it is for national security. And it gave me a different perspective…” (The Hill, 4/11/2024)·         SPEAKER JOHNSON: “Remember that’s how we kill terrorists. That’s how we stop terrorist plots on U.S. soil. That’s why we haven’t had another 9/11 since that terrible tragedy… It’s a critical tool to stop terrorism. The whole point of the law is that we surveil foreign persons, foreign terrorists.” (Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” 4/14/2024)HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE CHAIRMAN MIKE TURNER (R-OH): “We’re not surveilling Americans in the United States. Those individuals who say that this is a warrantless search of Americans’ data are just not telling the truth. These are foreigners abroad. They’re a select group of individuals who are a national security threat. If you’re an American and you’re corresponding with ISIS … if we’re spying on ISIS, your communications are going to be captured. You would want us to do that. All Americans would want us to try to make certain that we keep ourselves safe from these outside terrorist groups and organizations. We are not spying on Americans. This is not a warrantless surveillance program. This is foreigners who are abroad only, and this needs to pass.” (CNN’s “State Of The Union, 4/07/2024)FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO & FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR: “Congress has the chance to pass the single-largest overhaul to the FBI in nearly 20 years. Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which monitors foreign nationals overseas, is set to expire on April 19. This critical national security tool has allowed the United States to counter our adversaries like China and Russia and thwarted numerous terrorist attacks from ISIS and al Qaeda.” (Secretary Pompeo and Attorney General Barr, Op-Ed, “Congress Cannot Let FISA Section 702 Expire,” Fox News, 4/10/2024)·         “The continuation of FISA, bolstered by essential reforms to further protect American civil liberties from cases of misuse and exploitation, is pivotal in securing our country against existing and emerging threats while upholding the core principles of our democracy. The world has grown more dangerous, and our adversaries more emboldened. On President Biden’s watch, Russia has launched the most violent ground war in Europe since the 1940s; China has rapidly proliferated its nuclear weapons capabilities; Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban; and innocent Israeli men, women, and children have been slaughtered by Hamas, an Iranian proxy and designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. Make no mistake: Rogue nation-states and terror organizations want to harm Americans, destroy our values, and actively plan for death and destruction upon our homeland. The number of threats has grown to reflect the proliferation of more sophisticated weapons and the desire to inflict maximum damage. …  The safety of our country is at stake, and failing to act is not an option. Congress must reauthorize a reformed version of FISA, including Section 702. It will save lives and continue to deal a major blow to those who wish to do America grave harm.” (Secretary Pompeo and Attorney General Barr, Op-Ed, “Congress Cannot Let FISA Section 702 Expire,” Fox News, 4/10/2024)TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS: “The [Trump] Administration believes that Section 702 provides critical foreign intelligence that cannot practicably be obtained through other methods.” (Joint Statement of Then-Acting General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Bradley Rooker, Then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Intelligence Stuart Evans, Then-Deputy General Counsel for Operations of the NSA Paul Morris, and Then-Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s National Security Branch Carl Ghattas, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 6/27/2017)BIDEN ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS: “Section 702 provides foreign intelligence information that is indispensable to protect the nation against national security threats. It has proved invaluable in protecting American lives and U.S. national security. There is no way to replicate Section 702’s speed, reliability, specificity, and insight. In many cases, Section 702 is the sole source of our information about foreign threats to the United States and its people. Section 702 has been tremendously effective in combatting international terrorism, the dominant national security concern when Congress initially enacted the authority.” (Joint Statement of General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Chris Fonzone, NSA Deputy Director George Barnes, Deputy CIA Director David Cohen, Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate, And Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 6/13/2023)NSA DEPUTY DIRECTOR GEORGE BARNES: “The importance of [FISA Section 702] to our mission cannot be overstated. Data from FISA Section 702 helps us every day to understand the strategic intentions of foreign governments and certain non-state actors who pose threats to our interests. This source of intelligence is a big part of what keeps our leaders well informed about the threats we face. 59 percent of the presidential daily brief articles include intelligence acquired by NSA under 702 authority, and the PDB plays a key role in keeping the leadership across our government sighted on key threats. Countless intelligence community successes would not have been possible without 702. We have spoken publicly many times about how 702 has supported our counterterrorism mission, from preventing an attack on New York City’s subway in 2009, to supporting the operation that took down Ayman Zawahiri just last year.” (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 6/13/2023)THEN-NSA DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL FOR OPERATIONS PAUL MORRIS: “I've been with the intelligence community for almost 30 years and have been involved in the NSA's implementation of Section 702 since the law was first passed in 2008. Every day, I have the opportunity to see the importance of Section 702 to the United States' national security…. Section 702 is one of the most valuable operational authorities the intelligence community has. It is responsible for thousands of intelligence reports per year, and here are three brief examples of Section 702's value. NSA's analysis of Section 702 collection discovered the communications of a member of a major terrorist group, in the Middle East, who was communicating with an extremist in Europe, who was sharing ideas on how to commit a terrorist attack. Specifically, NSA discovered communications where the individual in Europe was discussing the purchase of material to build a suicide belt. NSA shared this critical information with European partners in an attempt to disrupt further attacks against U.S. and allied interests. We also use Section 702 to learn about sanctions evasion activity by a sanctions restricted country. Section 702 collection provided information that was key to interdicting shipments of prohibited goods by the target country. The usefulness of Section 702 goes beyond finding terrorists and stopping shipments of sanctioned goods. Today, I can share for the first time, publicly, an example of how Section 702 protects the American public when they use their smartphones. In 2016, thanks in part to NSA's Section 702 collection, the agency was able to obtain intelligence on a foreign government's state sponsored phone application, that impacted cybersecurity, and was not publicly known. Because of this discovery, the app was ultimately removed from the various phone application marketplaces. This last example illustrates how all of us are better off because of Section 702.” (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 6/27/2017)Families Of 9/11 Victims To Congress: Pass Section 702 Reauthorization“A coalition of survivors and family members of 9/11 victims is urging Congress to pass a bill that would reauthorize the nation’s warrantless surveillance powers, warning that a failure to do so will put Americans at risk of another terrorist attack.” (“Families Of 9/11 Victims Urge Congress To Pass FISA Bill,” The Hill, 4/10/2024)“The coalition, called 9/11 Families United, asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) in a letter Tuesday to urge Congress to pass a bill that would reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) for five years. Section 702 allows the government to spy on noncitizens located abroad.” (“Families Of 9/11 Victims Urge Congress To Pass FISA Bill,” The Hill, 4/10/2024)“A failure to reauthorize Section 702 ‘would be detrimental to national security,’ Terry Strada, national co-chair for 9/11 Families United, said in the letter. ‘We remember how our nation failed to stop al Qaeda and those who provided the material support for those attacks. Our country was caught flat-footed, lacking the tools it needed to stop attacks in their planning stages, and we are still paying the price,’ Strada wrote, adding that the organization is ‘grateful that Congress has created this new legal regime.’” (“Families Of 9/11 Victims Urge Congress To Pass FISA Bill,” The Hill, 4/10/2024)This Year’s FISA Reauthorization Bill Includes Important Bipartisan Reforms To Prevent And Crack Down On Surveillance AbusesTHE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “The Reforming Intelligence and Securing America Act, championed by Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, imposes new guardrails as well as criminal penalties for abuse. But it also preserves the ability to surveil and act with dispatch without introducing onerous bureaucratic barriers. The bill requires FBI personnel to get prior approval from a supervisor or staff attorney before running U.S. person queries. It would prevent political appointees from approving FBI database queries. And it would require audits of U.S. person queries to be run within 180 days after the query was initiated.” (Editorial, “A FISA Surveillance Compromise Worth Passing,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/09/2024)CHAIRMAN TURNER: “In this body, everyone is in agreement that there have been unbelievable abuses by the FBI of access to foreign intelligence. The underlying bill, of which there’s broad support, … criminalizes the FBI’s abuses, limits and restricts the FBI’s access to foreign intelligence, and further puts guardrails [in place].” (Rep. Turner, Remarks, 4/12/2024)FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE MIKE POMPEO & FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL WILLIAM BARR: “Under the leadership of Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, the House of Representatives has spent over a year crafting reforms to FISA that will prevent potential future abuses or inappropriate actions from the Intelligence Community while maintaining Section 702’s ability to monitor foreign terrorists and spies overseas. This legislation directly addresses FISA abuses by reducing the number of FBI personnel who can authorize a U.S. person query by more than 90%. Furthermore, it statutorily ties FBI leadership’s querying compliance directly to their compensation and assesses escalating penalties for an FBI agent’s subsequent abuses. To prevent future abuse, the committee’s reforms would prohibit using political opposition research and media reports to secure a FISA order, as well as create five enhanced criminal penalties for those who violate FISA, leak FISA applications, or lie to the FISA Court.” (Secretary Pompeo and Attorney General Barr, Op-Ed, “Congress Cannot Let FISA Section 702 Expire,” Fox News, 4/10/2024)FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR INTELLIGENCE PROGRAMS MICHAEL ELLIS AND FORMER NSA GENERAL COUNSEL STEWART BAKER: “Congressional Republicans may be tempted to respond [to abuses of surveillance authority] by simply refusing to renew a critical surveillance power. That’s the wrong answer. The biggest beneficiaries would be Xi’s China, Putin’s Russia, and a host of terrorist groups.” (Stewart Baker and Michael Ellis, Op-Ed, “Republicans' FISA Reform Opportunity,” RealClearPolicy, 1/10/2023) Proposals To Require Warrants For Use Of Information Collected Under Section 702 Would Cripple Our Intelligence Agencies’ Abilities To Act SwiftlyLEADER McCONNELL: “Let me be clear: the data collected under Section 702 is collected lawfully. It is entirely reasonable under the Constitution. Any incidental collection of communications by or about U.S. persons is also reasonable. Every court that has looked at that question has said so, and they’re right. Misguided efforts to require a criminal-law warrant to sort and organize those data on U.S. persons would end the ability of the FBI to keep America and Americans safe. Frankly, they would forget the lessons of 9/11. So I’ll oppose any such efforts and urge my colleagues to do the same.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 4/15/2024)·         LEADER McCONNELL: “We have until Friday to avoid a dangerous lapse in a critical tool for identifying and stopping espionage and terrorism against the United States. If any of our colleagues believes that now is an appropriate moment to make this mission even more difficult, I’d be very interested to hear their rationale. America is facing the most dangerous combination of national security challenges since the end of the Cold War. I will not be party to any effort to make it harder to meet these challenges. And the Senate will not allow vital security authorities to go dark.” (Sen. McConnell, Remarks, 4/15/2024)SPEAKER JOHNSON: “But the reason the warrant requirement is not helpful and the reason that people that we love and respect like Mike Pompeo and John Ratcliffe and Robert O’Brien and Devin Nunes, who have been in the intelligence community, and our guys, our conservatives who came off Judiciary Committee, a couple of them, they said you can’t put the warrant on this.” (Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” 4/14/2024)·         “If we’re surveilling a terrorist in the Middle East and the terrorist sends an e-mail to a guy named John Smith in Any Town, USA, and the e-mail says, the components will be delivered to your house this afternoon for further assembly and delivery to the high school stadium during the game, OK, I think every American would want the analyst who saw that e-mail from that foreign terrorist to do a query of the other communications between those two persons. That is not unlawful and that must continue. If that analyst had to get a warrant before that, it would add a huge time delay. The courts are not set up to be able to handle all that volume, and Americans may die.” (Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” 4/14/2024)CHAIRMAN TURNER: “The debate today, though, is not about FISA. It’s not about spying on our adversaries. The debate today is about a warrant requirement in an amendment that … would, for the first time in history, provide constitutional rights to our adversaries. It would provide constitutional rights to our enemies. No court, no law, has ever, ever come out of this body that would provide constitutional rights to our adversaries.” (Rep. Turner, Remarks, 4/12/2024)·         “The 9/11 perpetrators were in the United States, and they were communicating with Al-Qaeda. At that time, we made a grave mistake in that we were not spying on Al-Qaeda, and we didn’t see whom they were communicating with within the United States. We changed that, and we began to spy on Al-Qaeda, and we got to see the extent to which they were recruiting people in the United States to do us harm. If this amendment passes, Al-Qaeda will have full constitutional protections to recruit in the United States, the Chinese Communist Party will have full constitutional protections to recruit in the United States, and there will be no increased protection of constitutional protections for Americans and their data. The only data that would become protected is data that are located in Al-Qaeda’s inbox and the Chinese Communist Party’s inbox.” (Rep. Turner, Remarks, 4/12/2024)THE WALL STREET JOURNAL EDITORIAL BOARD: “The demand for a warrant would have ended 702’s utility as a real-time intelligence asset. Although Section 702 allows only the collection of information from foreigners overseas, Republicans like Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) and progressives like Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) claimed the ability to search for American names meant it could be used to spy on U.S. citizens. The FBI deserved criticism for its abuses of the program. But as the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) wrote unanimously in 2014, Section 702 ‘prohibits deliberately acquiring even a single communication . . . solely among people located within the United States.’ The program would therefore be a ‘poor vehicle to repress domestic dissent’ or ‘monitor U.S. political activists,’ PCLOB wrote.” (Editorial, “A Near Miss for National Security on FISA,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/12/2024)·         “The FISA warrant fight was a near miss for national security and illustrates the flight from reality in American politics. Instead of battling along party lines, the fight over the warrant pitted the extremes of each party against those who understand the importance of preventing another Sept. 11. The center prevailed this time, but barely.” (Editorial, “A Near Miss for National Security on FISA,” The Wall Street Journal, 4/12/2024)National Security Experts Agree: Adding A Warrant Requirement To 702 Surveillance Is Legally Unnecessary, Ultimately Unworkable, And ‘Is A Recipe For Delay And Failure Of The Kind We Saw In The Run-Up To 9/11’MICHAEL ELLIS AND STEWART BAKER: “Since the enactment of section 702, left-wing activists have tried to force intelligence agencies to obtain a court-approved warrant before running a query in the databases.  A warrant requirement is a bad idea because it would make the 702 databases almost impossible to access, even when it’s vital to obtain the information. And the precedent that the government needs a warrant to look through lawfully collected information would end up crippling the U.S. intelligence community.  But a warrant requirement is a particularly bad idea for conservatives concerned about the weaponization of government against political opponents. That’s because a warrant requirement would rely on the same broken court process that led to the abuse of FISA in the past.” (Stewart Baker and Michael Ellis, Op-Ed, “Many Are Focusing On The Wrong FISA Fix,” The Hill, 8/15/2023)·         “[T]he section 702 data that the FBI is allowed to search today was gathered lawfully; it consists of communications to and from fewer than 8,000 foreign targets who are tied to an existing FBI investigation. Many of those are counterterrorism investigations, where it’s critical that the FBI know as soon as possible if an American is in direct communication with a foreign terrorist. Requiring a full probable cause workup and a cumbersome court process before that information is available to investigators would keep them in the dark if all they have is a tip about possible terror ties; that is a recipe for delay and failure of the kind we saw in the run-up to 9/11.” (Stewart Baker and Michael Ellis, Op-Ed, “The Left’s FISA Reform Trap,” RealClearPolitics, 9/20/2023)·         “Almost worse, the warrant requirement doesn’t fit at all with one of the most common uses of the database – FBI searches to identify American victims of ransomware, cyberespionage, and the kind of foreign government assassination and coercion attempts we’ve seen from China and Iran.  Speaking for ourselves, we won’t thank any Republicans who vote to make it harder for the FBI to notify us if we’re on the receiving end of such threats.” (Stewart Baker and Michael Ellis, Op-Ed, “The Left’s FISA Reform Trap,” RealClearPolitics, 9/20/2023)THEN-DEPUTY ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR INTELLIGENCE STUART EVANS: “As a policy matter, imposing a warrant requirement would effectively, as a practical matter, prohibit these queries from being done for a wide range of reasons. First, probable cause is a very high threshold, and a query is a baseline investigative technique that is used in the early stages of an investigation to rule someone in, rule someone out, try to connect the dots. At that stage in an investigation, it's often the case that probable cause won't exist. So that's one reason it's problematic. A second reason is time and volume, because of the speed with which these queries need to be run to try to connect the dots and the volume which they need to be run requiring a court order for them would effectively grind the entire FISA process to a halt.” (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 6/27/2017)·         “[L]egally speaking, under both the statute and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, a warrant is not required to conduct these so-called queries. And I think the first thing to understanding why that's the case is understanding what a query is, when we talk about a U.S. person query of the Section 702 data. We are not acquiring any new information. We are not collecting -- conducting any additional surveillance. It's simply a targeted review of information already in our possession that we've gathered through the surveillance previously of a foreigner located overseas. And that matters for Fourth Amendment purposes, because whether a warrant is required under the Fourth Amendment matters on how you acquire the information. And here, all of the information that we're talking about was acquired through the targeting of foreigners located abroad and collected for foreign intelligence purposes. And every court to consider this issue, and that's not just the FISA court -- that's also federal district courts -- have reached the conclusion that as a legal matter, a warrant isn't required to collect that information in the first place, and therefore isn't required to review it after we've subsequently collected it.” (U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing, 6/27/2017)TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS: “To require an individualized court order before acquiring the communications of a foreign terrorist or other foreign intelligence target overseas would have serious adverse consequences…. First, in some cases it would likely prevent the acquisition of important foreign intelligence information. The Intelligence Community may not meet the relatively high evidentiary standard of probable cause … Second, even as to those targets who otherwise meet the probable cause standard under Title I of FISA, eliminating Section 702’s more agile targeting requirements would significantly slow the Intelligence Community’s ability to acquire important foreign intelligence information in a timely manner. Third, because of the number of Section 702 selectors, it is simply not practical to obtain individualized orders on a routine basis. The burden of seeking tens of thousands of individual court orders would overwhelm the Executive and Judicial Branches, an untenable result given the lack of a requirement to seek such orders under the Fourth Amendment.” (Joint Statement of Then-Acting General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Bradley Rooker, Then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Intelligence Stuart Evans, Then-Deputy General Counsel for Operations of the NSA Paul Morris, and Then-Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s National Security Branch Carl Ghattas, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 6/27/2017)9/11 Families United Letter To Speaker Johnson: “‘We understand that there are those who want to make changes to how Section 702 works, in part to safeguard Americans’ civil liberties. We respect those voices,’ Strada wrote. Strada continued, urging Congress against adopting reforms that could undermine authorities’ access to information. ‘Again, we have all seen what happens when those stones go unturned,’ she added.” (“Families Of 9/11 Victims Urge Congress To Pass FISA Bill,” The Hill, 4/10/2024) Section 702 Has Yielded Invaluable And Actionable Intelligence That Has Thwarted Terrorist Plots, Located Al Qaeda Leaders, Helped Combat Cyberattacks And Fentanyl Trafficking, And Identified Malicious Foreign Agents“A trio of senior administration officials disclosed new details to reporters on how Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act has been used to mitigate three pressing national security challenges: fentanyl trafficking, foreign cyberattacks and Beijing’s persecution of dissidents.” (“White House Provides New Details On Use Of Surveillance Tool Ahead Of Senate Hearing,” Politico, 6/13/2023)·         “They said 702 has yielded insights into the Chinese origins of a chemical used to synthesize fentanyl and to track the ‘quantities and potency’ of drugs being smuggled into the country. The tool also helped the Biden administration identify the hacker behind a 2021 ransomware attack that crippled the country’s largest fuel pipeline — and then seize a part of the payment the individual extorted from the victim, Colonial Pipeline. The ability to query U.S. data within the database also allowed the FBI to unravel a Chinese hack against an U.S. transportation hub and an Iranian digital espionage effort that targeted the head of a U.S. federal department, they said.” (“White House Provides New Details On Use Of Surveillance Tool Ahead Of Senate Hearing,” Politico, 6/13/2023)BIDEN ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS: “In 2009, for example, Section 702 helped foil an active plot to bomb the New York City subway. National Security Agency (NSA) analysts relied on Section 702 to acquire the email communications of a suspected Al-Qa’ida courier in Pakistan and discovered a message sent by someone in the United States seeking advice about making explosives. The FBI identified that person as Najibullah Zazi and was able to disrupt his plot in time to save countless lives. Moreover, Section 702’s value to the government’s efforts to counter international terrorism continues to the present day. [I]n July 2022, Section 702 played an important role in the strike against Al-Qa’ida’s leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri. Section 702 collection contributed significantly to our knowledge that al-Zawahiri was living in a safe house in downtown Kabul.” (Joint Statement of General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Chris Fonzone, NSA Deputy Director George Barnes, Deputy CIA Director David Cohen, Deputy FBI Director Paul Abbate, And Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 6/13/2023)TRUMP ADMINISTRATION NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIALS: “CIA has used FISA Section 702 collection to uncover details, including a photograph, that enabled an African partner to arrest two ISIS-affiliated militants who had traveled from Turkey and were connected to planning a specific and immediate threat against U.S. personnel and interests. Data recovered from the arrest enabled CIA to learn additional information about ISIS and uncovered actionable intelligence on an ISIS facilitation network and ISIS attack planning.” (Joint Statement of Then-Acting General Counsel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence Bradley Rooker, Then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Intelligence Stuart Evans, Then-Deputy General Counsel for Operations of the NSA Paul Morris, and Then-Executive Assistant Director of the FBI’s National Security Branch Carl Ghattas, U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, 6/27/2017)MICHAEL ELLIS AND STEWART BAKER: “The information collected under Section 702 is immensely valuable. The CIA recently used Section 702 to stop advanced weapons shipments to Iran, and according to the House working group, nearly 60% of the intelligence in the president’s daily brief comes from 702 collection.” (Michael Ellis and Stewart Baker, Op-Ed, “Secure The Border And Stop The Cartels With FISA,” Washington Examiner, 12/13/2023) Failing To Renew A Critical National Security Tool Like FISA Section 702 Would Be The Height Of Folly As America Is Facing An Unprecedented Array Of Threats Terrorist Groups Including Al Qaeda And ISIS Continue Targeting Americans All Over The World“The United States firmly sees the group as an ongoing threat, with U.S. Central Command leader Gen. Michael Kurilla warning lawmakers last March that ISIS-K was rapidly building up its ability to conduct ‘external operations’ in Europe and Asia.  Attacks within the United States were not as likely, he said, but predicted that ISIS-K would be able to hit U.S. and Western interests outside Afghanistan ‘in as little as six months and with little to no warning.’” (“ISIS-K Attack In Moscow Draws Fears Of Plots In US, Europe,” The Hill, 3/31/2024)·         “ISIS-K has focused most of its attacks on Afghanistan, notably the August 2021 bombing outside the Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul during the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan. The bombing – which killed at least 183 people, including 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members – ‘sort of woke the world up to the threat that the group posed,’ [Michael Kugelman of the Washington, D.C.-based Wilson Center] said.” (“ISIS-K Attack In Moscow Draws Fears Of Plots In US, Europe,” The Hill, 3/31/2024)Iran Is Actively Attempting To Assassinate U.S. Government Officials And Dissidents Who Have Fled The Ayatollah’s Brutal Regime “The Iranian government has stepped up its efforts to kidnap and kill government officials, activists and journalists around the world, including in the United States, according to government documents and interviews with 15 officials in Washington, Europe and the Middle East, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.” (“Rise In Iranian Assassination, Kidnapping Plots Alarms Western Officials,” The Washington Post, 12/01/2022)·         “Tehran has targeted former senior U.S. government officials; dissidents who have fled the country for the United States, Britain, Canada, Turkey and Europe; media organizations critical of the regime; and Jewish civilians or those with links to Israel, according to the officials and government documents.” (“Rise In Iranian Assassination, Kidnapping Plots Alarms Western Officials,” The Washington Post, 12/01/2022)“Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was told by the Justice Department that he was a second target of a plot, revealed Wednesday, by an Iranian operative to murder former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton. Driving the news: A source close to Pompeo told Axios that DOJ ‘has confirmed directly to Secretary Pompeo that he is one of the individuals who has been targeted by those who are [charged] in the announced DOJ [documents].’” (“Source: Iranian Plot Had $1M Pompeo Bounty,” Axios, 8/10/2022)·         “DOJ on Wednesday unsealed charges against Shahram Poursafi, a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.” (“Source: Iranian Plot Had $1M Pompeo Bounty,” Axios, 8/10/2022)·         “Biden administration on Thursday [June 2023] imposed sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials accused of plotting assassinations abroad, including against former national security adviser John Bolton and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.” (“US Sanctions Iranian Officials Accused Of Plotting Assassinations Abroad Including Against Bolton And Pompeo,” CNN, 6/01/2023)China’s Espionage Efforts Have Reached New Levels: They ‘Reach Across Every Facet Of National Security, Diplomacy And Advanced Commercial Technology In The United States And Partner Nations’“For Beijing, the new tolerance for bold action among Chinese spy agencies is driven by Mr. Xi, who has led his military to engage in aggressive moves along the nation’s borders and pushed his foreign intelligence agency to become more active in farther-flung locales.” (“In Risky Hunt For Secrets, U.S. And China Expand Global Spy Operations,” The New York Times, 9/17/2023)“American officials, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss espionage, have stressed in interviews throughout the year the magnitude of the challenge. The C.I.A. is focusing on Mr. Xi himself, and in particular his intentions regarding Taiwan. The F.B.I.’s counterintelligence task forces across the nation have intensified their hunt for Chinese efforts to recruit spies inside the United States. U.S. agents have identified a dozen penetrations by Chinese citizens of military bases on American soil in the last 12 months.” (“In Risky Hunt For Secrets, U.S. And China Expand Global Spy Operations,” The New York Times, 9/17/2023)“Chinese nationals, sometimes posing as tourists, have accessed military bases and other sensitive sites in the U.S. as many as 100 times in recent years, according to U.S. officials, who describe the incidents as a potential espionage threat.” (“Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/04/2023)·         “In at least one instance, an incursion there resulted in arrests and prosecutions that were made public. In 2020, three Chinese citizens were sentenced to about a year in prison after pleading guilty to illegally entering the naval air station in Key West, and taking photos by either walking around the fence line and entering it from the beach, or driving in and ignoring orders to turn around.” (“Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/04/2023)·         “In another incident, Chinese nationals appear to have been found scuba diving off Cape Canaveral, home to the Kennedy Space Center. The area is the launch site for spy satellites and other military missions. A spokesman for Homeland Security Investigations’s Tampa, Fla., field office said the incident was part of a continuing investigation and declined to comment further.”  (“Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/04/2023)·         “U.S. officials also describe incidents around the White House in which Chinese nationals posing as tourists leave the designated tour area to take pictures of the grounds, including communications gear and the positions of security guards, before being shooed away by the Secret Service.” (“Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/04/2023)“The incidents, which U.S. officials describe as a form of espionage, appear designed to test security practices at U.S. military installations and other federal sites. Officials familiar with the practice say the individuals are typically Chinese nationals pressed into service and required to report back to the Chinese government.” (“Chinese Gate-Crashers at U.S. Bases Spark Espionage Concerns,” The Wall Street Journal, 9/04/2023)“Taken together, U.S. officials say, China’s efforts reach across every facet of national security, diplomacy and advanced commercial technology in the United States and partner nations.” (“In Risky Hunt For Secrets, U.S. And China Expand Global Spy Operations,” The New York Times, 9/17/2023)‘The Threat Of Russian Spies Operating On US Soil … [Has] Once Again Drawn Top Level Attention’“The threat of Russian spies operating on US soil is nothing new. But as US officials have increasingly recognized Russia under President Vladimir Putin as an adversary, traditional counterintelligence concerns once thought of as Cold War relics – human spies operating on US soil rather than cyber spies acting from inside of Russia – have once again drawn top level attention.” (“FBI Director Wray Issues Warning About Number Of Russian Spies In The US,” CNN, 9/08/2023) ###SENATE REPUBLICAN COMMUNICATIONS CENTERRelated Issues: Iran, Russia, China, Homeland Security, National Security, ISILPrintEmailTweetPreviousTHE NEWSROOMSENATE RESOURCESABOUT LEADER McCONNELLFacebookTwitterInstagram