DEA’s monitoring efforts highlight reasons for Congress to hesitate on FISA renewal
Revealed: The Hidden Truths of a Decades-Long Surveillance Saga
Unearthed reports bring to light the sobering realities of government surveillance as Capitol Hill mulls over the renewal of a key piece of legislation. The Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) long history of collecting telephone records has come under scrutiny, casting a long shadow over current legislative decisions.
A Peek into the DEA’s Secret Archives
For over twenty years, the DEA had been amassing phone records on an unimaginable scale. That is until 2013, when the Edward Snowden affair raised public outcry, and the program came to an abrupt halt. Fast forward to a hard-fought revelation: an inspector general’s report with more blackout bars than text was released. But now, thanks to dogged pursuit by the press, a less censored narrative surfaces, though it still holds onto its secrets dearly.
What’s stunning is the DEA’s audacious refusal to cooperate with parts of the inspector general’s investigation — a deadlock that lasted a staggering seven months. The consequence? Seemingly, none.
“It raises fundamental questions about whether you can really trust publicly released Inspector General reports,” remarked Patrick Eddington, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. “When federal agencies and the intelligence community can subvert oversight, it turns the final reports into a farce.”
The Cat-and-Mouse Game of Information Requests
Eddington’s own battle to obtain the full report spanned almost five years – only to be met with a version still riddled with redactions. Revealingly, this arrives amid Sunshine Week, an initiative underscoring the significance of transparency in governance.
All this as Congress engages in heated debates over the fate of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Critics argue, without a warrant requirement to access FISA data on Americans, the door is open to misuse.
What the DEA Files Uncover
Initiated in the ’90s, the DEA’s program was theoretically aimed at drug trafficking via communication devices, like disposable “burner” phones. Yet, it ballooned far beyond its original intent, and the specifics of its operation remain shrouded in mystery.
- Following 2006, the DEA began disseminating data to other agencies for investigations unrelated to narcotics.
- DEA sought telephone company cooperation—first voluntarily, then with compensated subpoenas as “legal cover.”
They picked partners willing to cooperate, then handed them subpoenas to sweeten the deal,” Eddington said. “This speaks volumes about the DEA’s underhanded methods.”
The Snowden exposé forced the program’s shutdown—yet, it begs the question: why weren’t the glaring issues of surveillance and privacy tackled sooner?
Billions of data points, often without any link to specific investigations, were swept up by the DEA’s net. Now, the agency claims to target individual numbers relevant to specific cases, but details on compliance and ongoing standards are foggy.
The Unanswered Questions
Despite the program ending, the new inspector general’s report remains a sea of redactions. The unnerving past of DEA surveillance looms over the renewal of FISA—a caution that Eddington insists Congress should not ignore.
“The sordid history of this program is a testament to the need for caution in the FISA reauthorization process,” he asserts. The DEA and Justice Department have yet to respond to inquiries for their side of the story.
Both versions of the report, with updated insights and redactions, are provided for your perusal below. Delve into these documents; they could very well shape the future of national security and personal privacy.
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