{"id":1941081,"date":"2023-05-31T05:51:01","date_gmt":"2023-05-31T09:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/assistant-secretary-of-state-calls-fisa-abuses-disturbing-but-says-program-should-continue\/"},"modified":"2023-05-31T05:53:33","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T09:53:33","slug":"assistant-secretary-of-state-calls-fisa-abuses-disturbing-but-says-program-should-continue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/assistant-secretary-of-state-calls-fisa-abuses-disturbing-but-says-program-should-continue\/","title":{"rendered":"State official disturbed by FISA abuses, supports program continuation."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fassistant-secretary-of-state-calls-fisa-abuses-disturbing-but-says-program-should-continue%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1941081&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Assistant Secretary of State Defends Section 702 Despite Abuses<\/h2>\n<div class=\"post_content\">\n<div class=\"aplayer_app\" data-source=\"https:\/\/vs1.youmaker.com\/assets\/2023\/0531\/0693a4fc-2dc4-4068-8fc5-137284b2b075\/audio.mp3?length=3489741&#038;duration=291\"><\/div>\n<p>Assistant Secretary of State Brett Holmgren recently defended the controversial Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), despite its numerous abuses. Holmgren, who oversees the State Department\u2019s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), emphasized the program&#8217;s national security and diplomatic benefits, downplaying its violations.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Section 702?<\/h3>\n<p>Section 702 is a provision in U.S. law that allows for intelligence gathering of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-intel-republicans-to-probe-egregious-fisa-abuses-allegedly-used-to-illegally-spy-on-americans\/\" title=\"House Intel Republicans to Probe \u2018Egregious\u2019 FISA Abuses Allegedly Used to Illegally Spy on Americans\">foreign agents operating<\/a> outside the U.S. However, a litany of violations has left the fate of the program\u2014which is set to expire on Dec. 31 if Congress doesn\u2019t reauthorize it\u2014uncertain.<\/p>\n<h3>Abuses of Section 702<\/h3>\n<p>Most prominently, Section 702 has been repeatedly abused by the FBI. This abuse peaked in 2021 when, according to a FISA court-ordered report, the FBI used Section 702 to make over 3.3 million illegal queries of U.S. citizens. After 2021, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/assistant-secretary-of-state-calls-fisa-abuses-disturbing-but-says-program-should-continue\/\" title=\"State official disturbed by FISA abuses, supports program continuation.\">agency reportedly made internal reforms<\/a>. Director Christopher Wray has said that illegal queries decreased by 90 percent after changes were instituted. But another recently-unsealed court opinion left the FBI again facing questions about its use of the program, and again promising changes to address newly-discovered abuses.<\/p>\n<h3>Defending Section 702<\/h3>\n<p>During a speech at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington, Holmgren argued in favor of the diplomatic and national security benefits of the program. He confessed that he found the revelations of FBI spying on Americans using Section 702 \u201cdisturbing and unfortunate.\u201d Still, he emphasized other facets of the program.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>\u201c702 has been vital to countering \u2026 national security threats,\u201d including \u201cforeign threats, terrorists and cyber attacks, espionage, and weapons of mass destruction,\u201d Holmgren said. \u201cSimply put, the 702 program doesn\u2019t just help defend and protect U.S. interests. It is essential to advancing and promoting U.S. interests in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Conclusion<\/h3>\n<p>While Section 702 has been useful in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/scott-powell-world-war-iii-is-here-and-its-an-ongoing-psyop-to-break-america\/\" title=\"Scott Powell: World War III Is Here and It\u2019s an Ongoing Psyop to Break America\">countering national security threats<\/a>, its numerous abuses cannot be ignored. As Congress decides whether to reauthorize the program, it must weigh its benefits against its potential for abuse and violation of Americans&#8217; privacy rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>, Brett Holmgren, Assistant Secretary of State, expressed concern over the misuse of Section 702 of FISA but advocated for its continuation. Holmgren, who supervises INR, highlighted the program&#8217;s significance in national security and diplomacy, playing down the violations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":1941082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[5582,27953,5296,19971,4808,6644,9787],"class_list":["post-1941081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times","tag-abuses","tag-continuation","tag-disturbed","tag-fisa","tag-official","tag-program","tag-supports"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1941081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1941082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1941081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1941081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1941081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}