"Biden signed an Executive Order Friday designed to allay European concerns that U.S. intelligence agencies are illegally spying on them," but didn't try to allay concerns his spys are illegally spying on Americans
On October 7, PBS said that "Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday designed to allay European concerns that U.S. intelligence agencies are illegally spying on them," but didn't try to allay concerns his spys are illegally spying on Americans:
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday designed to allay European concerns that U.S. intelligence agencies are illegally spying on them. It promises strengthened safeguards against data collection abuses and creates a forum for legal challenges.
The order builds on a preliminary agreement Biden announced in March with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in a bid to end a yearslong battle over the safety of EU citizens’ data that tech companies store in the U.S. However, the European privacy campaigner who triggered the battle wasn’t satisfied it resolved core issues and warned of more legal wrangling...
... European consumer rights and privacy campaigners, including activist Max Schrems whose complaint kicked off the legal battle a decade earlier, were skeptical whether it goes far enough and could end up in the bloc’s top court again.
Friday’s order narrows the scope of intelligence gathering — regardless of a target’s nationality — to “validated intelligence priorities,” fortifies the mandate of the Civil Liberties Protection Officer in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and directs the attorney general to establish an independent court to review related activities. [https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/biden-signs-executive-order-promising-eu-citizens-better-data-privacy]
In February, the Brennan Center reported on the CIA's illegal spying on Americans:
There’s a lot to unpack in the bombshell announcement by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) last week that the CIA has been conducting a bulk collection program and searching through the resulting data for information about Americans.
“Bulk collection” is what happens when the government vacuums up data indiscriminately rather than targeting individuals or groups. The term was last in the news when whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed in 2013 that the NSA had collecting Americans’ telephone records in bulk.
You might be asking, didn’t Congress end bulk collection? The short answer is no. In 2015, Congress passed legislation that ended the NSA’s program and sought to prohibit bulk collection when the government is acting under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). But that law only applies to certain types of surveillance that target U.S. persons or happen inside the United States. When the collection happens overseas or falls into one of FISA’s statutory gaps, it takes place under Executive Order 12333, issued by President Ronald Reagan in 1981.
As the Brennan Center noted in a 2016 report, most foreign intelligence surveillance actually takes place under EO 12333, not FISA. That means it is subject to no statutory constraints whatsoever, and there is no judicial review or oversight. EO 12333 does place some limits on surveillance, but not shockingly, its rules are much more permissive than those Congress established in FISA. Bulk collection is just one example — it’s banned under FISA but permitted under EO 12333...
... The former Obama officials who now lead the intelligence agencies seem to have forgotten the lesson of the NSA illegal spying fiasco: Public trust is necessary for intelligence agencies to operate effectively. That trust took an enormous hit after the Snowden disclosures, and intelligence agencies spent years trying to build it back through increased transparency. But if intelligence leaders continue to withhold any and all information about a bulk collection program that sweeps in Americans’ data, they will lose whatever ground they gained — and they will be doing so by choice.
As for Congress, it cannot continue to allow the executive branch to have free access to Americans’ most personal data based on outdated factual distinctions that have no relevance to the level of privacy intrusion or risk of abuse. No surveillance that has a significant impact on Americans’ privacy should take place without statutory safeguards or judicial oversight. Surveillance scandals over the past decade have yielded a long list of changes that Congress should make to FISA. In light of last week’s news, Congress must now add one more critical reform to that list: legislate limits on EO 12333 surveillance — including a ban on bulk collection — and bring it under the oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. [https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/how-cia-acting-outside-law-spy-americans]
Pray an Our Father now in reparation for the sins of Francis's Amoris Laetitia.
Pray an Our Father now for the restoration of the Church as well as the Triumph of the Kingdom of the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
Stop for a moment of silence, ask Jesus Christ what He wants you to do now and next. In this silence remember God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost - Three Divine Persons yet One God, has an ordered universe where you can know truth and falsehood as well as never forget that He wants you to have eternal happiness with Him as his son or daughter by grace. Make this a practice. By doing this you are doing more good than reading anything here or anywhere else on the Internet.
Francis Notes:
- "If Francis is a Heretic, What should Canonically happen to him?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2020/12/if-francis-is-heretic-what-should.html
- "Could Francis be a Antipope even though the Majority of Cardinals claim he is Pope?": http://www.thecatholicmonitor.com/2019/03/could-francis-be-antipope-even-though.html
Election Notes:
- Intel Cryptanalyst-Mathematician on Biden Steal: "212Million Registered Voters & 66.2% Voting,140.344 M Voted...Trump got 74 M, that leaves only 66.344 M for Biden" [http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/intel-cryptanalyst-mathematician-on.html?m=1]
- Will US be Venezuela?: Ex-CIA Official told Epoch Times "Chávez started to Focus on [Smartmatic] Voting Machines to Ensure Victory as early as 2003": http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2020/12/will-us-be-venezuela-ex-cia-official.html
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