Washington. A group of experts gathered by the White House acknowledged on Monday that US spy agencies have violated the rules on surveillance of foreigners in the world, but they believe that this tool is essential.
This panel, formed at the request of President Joe Biden, recommended reforming the regulation that authorizes this type of surveillance, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
It allows intelligence agencies, such as the FBI, to conduct electronic surveillance, including checking emails, of non-Americans abroad without the need for a warrant.
This tool, established in 2008 after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and intelligence failures, remains essential for national security, the experts estimated.
“It has been fundamental in its first 15 years in preventing several potential high-impact events,” such as preventing an attack on the New York subway in 2009, they point out.
Many US congressmen are reluctant to renew Section 702 when it expires in December because it has also been used to monitor Americans.
The panel recommends reforms and improvements in the way the protocol is used.
“Unfortunately, complacency, a lack of proper procedures, and the sheer volume” of surveillance led to the “inappropriate use of Section 702 powers by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the FBI notes.
But he added that there is no evidence “of a deliberate misuse of these powers by the FBI for political purposes.”
To date, only three of the millions of cases of information collected through Section 702 involve “intentional misconduct,” the panel said.
Eliminating the program could be “one of the worst intelligence failures of our time,” he warned.
Democrats and civil liberties activists have long opposed this program. But currently the most reluctant are the Republicans, who are following the example of former President Donald Trump.
Indicted in several court cases, Trump, a candidate for the 2024 presidential election, accuses the FBI of political bias against him.
Section 702 has been renewed twice since 2008 thanks to the support of Republicans.
According to the panel, a “significant” volume of classified information provided to senior government officials about international terrorist networks, China and Russia is collected through Section 702.
