The Debate on Fixing Section 702 Surveillance

WSJ Opinion: Potomac Watch

The Wall Street Journal

News, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 15 December 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When the government monitors foreigners outside the U.S. to protect national security, that information goes into a database that can be searched later, including for Americans. With Section 702 authority about to expire, some Republicans want to add a warrant requirement for queries on U.S. persons, while others are focused on better oversight and accountability for abuses. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:29.3	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Potomac Watch.
0:38.0	Congress does a short-term extension of Section 702 surveillance authority as the debate deepens among
0:46.3	Republicans about how to fix the program for the long term.
0:49.7	Welcome I'm Kyle Peterson with the Wall Street Journal.
0:53.6	We are joined today by my colleagues, editorial board member Colin Levy and columnist
0:59.3	Kim Strassal.
1:01.3	Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA has become
1:06.9	controversial in recent years because of specific examples of abuses by law
1:11.9	enforcement agencies but many members of Congress of safe. Let's start with a clip of FBI director Christopher Ray taking that position in a recent
1:26.0	congressional hearing.
1:27.0	I think blinding ourselves through either allowing 702 to lapse or amending it in a way that guts its effectiveness
1:35.0	would be reckless at best and dangerous and irresponsible at worst.
1:42.0	The reality is the whole reason we have 702 focused on foreign threats
1:47.6	from overseas is to protect America from those threats.
1:53.7	It's not to admire foreign threats from afar and study them and think about them.
1:58.4	It's to know what they are and to make sure they don't hurt Americans here. Colin, let's start with the basics as a reminder to listeners.
2:05.0	What is Section 702 surveillance?
2:08.0	How does this program operate and what are the abuses that has made it so controversial?
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