US: NSA director pushes Congress to renew surveillance power

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A top US intelligence official on Thursday urged Congress to renew sweeping powers granted to American spy agencies to monitor and examine communications, saying they were critical to stopping terrorism, cyberattacks and other threats.

The remarks by Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, director of the National Security Agency, opened what’s expected to be a contentious debate over provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that expire at year’s end. The bipartisan consensus in favour of expanded surveillance powers in the years after September 11 has given way to increased scepticism, especially among some Republicans who believe spy agencies used those powers to undermine former President Donald Trump.

The new GOP majority in the US House has already formed a panel on the “weaponisation of the federal government.” And progressive Democrats have pushed for more curbs on warrantless surveillance.

The NSA and other spy agencies use authorities under Fisa’s Section 702 to collect huge swaths of foreign communications, which also results in the incidental collection of emails and calls from Americans. The law prohibits spy agencies from targeting Americans and requires the FBI to seek a court order to access a US citizen’s communications.

Section 702 was first added to Fisa in 2008 and renewed for six years in 2018, when Trump originally tweeted opposition to the program but then reversed himself.

Nakasone argued the law “plays an outsize role in protecting the nation” and generates “some of the US government’s most valuable intelligence on our most challenging targets.”

He gave several broad examples of that work, including the discovery of attempts to steal sensitive US technology, stopping the transfer of weapons components, preventing cyberattacks, and “understanding the strategic intentions” of China and Russia.

“We have saved lives because of 702,” Nakasone told a virtual meeting of the US Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board.