FBI Watch 2
FBI opens criminal investigations into violent Los Angeles County deputy encounters
July 15, 2023
https://www.newsweek.com/
Hunter Biden Scandal ‘Extremely Serious,’FBI Agent Says
BY THOMAS KIKA ON 7/15/23
https://www.dailywire.com/
House Republicans Move To Cut Funding For FBI, Protect Whistleblowers
Jul 15, 2023
https://www.ntd.com/rep-
Rep. Victoria Spartz Confronts FBI Chief Wray About FISA Abuses
By NTD Newsroom
https://dailycaller.com/2023/
FERBRACHE: You May Have Missed A Startling Part Of Wray’s Testimony On Backdoor Gun Control
JULYNINETEENTH The Black Hammer Times
An Attack on the Revolution: The FBI Targets the Black Hammer Party
July 15, 2023
The inside story of how the FBI’s top brass intervened to protect top Democrats
Jerry Dunleavy, an excellent political reporter at the Washington Examiner, has used Twitter to publish what he correctly labels a “scoop,” and he has crafted a must-read. Using my words, not his, he found a source, “a former FBI official from the counterintelligence world,” who explained how a notable coverup worked. He eschews such conclusory language and wisely sticks to a straightforward facts-first reporting style.
FBI agents started investigating potential Chinese spies Russel Lowe and Fang Fang, who had gotten very close to Dianne Feinstein and Eric Swalwell, respectively.
According to the former FBI official from the counterintelligence world, the FBI had FISA surveillance up & running on Fang (who was targeting numerous politicians in Calif
GOP Rep. Moore: FISA Section 702 Reauthorization on the Table to Counter FBI Stonewalling Congress
https://www.eff.org/702-spying
Decoding 702: What is Section 702?
Why can the U.S. government collect my emails?
Under authority ostensibly granted by something called Section 702, the U.S. government routinely collects and searches the online communications of innocent Americans without a warrant through what are commonly called “upstream” and “PRISM” (now called “downstream”) surveillance.
Section 702 is a surveillance authority passed as part of the FISA Amendments Act in 2008. That law amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
Section 702 is supposed to do exactly what its name promises: collection of foreign intelligence from non-Americans located outside the United States. As the law is written, the intelligence community cannot use Section 702 programs to target Americans, who are protected by the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. But the law gives the intelligence community space to target foreign intelligence in ways that inherently and intentionally sweep in Americans’ communications.
Currently, Congress has to renew Section 702 every few years. It was last renewed in 2018 and is set to expire at the end of 2023.
The bill that was most recently passed, S. 139, endorses nearly all warrantless searches of databases containing Americans’ communications collected under Section 702. It allows for the restarting of “about” collection, an invasive type of surveillance that the NSA ended in 2017 after being criticized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for privacy violations. And it includes a six-year sunset, delaying Congress’ best opportunity to debate the limits NSA surveillance.
What’s the database the FBI misused to seek info on Jan. 6 suspects, BLM arrestees?
May 19, 2023
The FBI is in hot water for misusing a powerful surveillance tool nearly 300,000 times in 2020 and early 2021, including to search for information about Americans linked to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol or arrested during Black Lives Matter protests.
The tool in question is a vast database known to the intelligence community as Se
WARRANTLESS SURVEILLANCE UNDER SECTION 702 OF FISA
Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the U.S. government engages in mass, warrantless surveillance of Americans’ and foreigners’ phone calls, text messages, emails, and other electronic communications. Information collected under the law without a warrant can be used to prosecute and imprison people, even for crimes that have nothing to do with national security. Given our nation’s history of abusing its surveillance authorities, and the secrecy surrounding the program, we should be concerned that Section 702 is and will be used to disproportionately target disfavored groups, whether minority communities, political activists, or even journalists.
Section 702 is set to expire at the end of 2023. We call on Congress to significantly reform the law, or allow it to sunset.
https://www.brennancenter.org/
Section 702 of FISA: A “Foreign Intelligence” Law Turned Domestic Spying Tool
Overview
In 2008, Congress passed Section 702 of FISA to give the government greater powers to conduct warrantless surveillance of suspected foreign terrorists. The law allows the National Security Agency (NSA), when collecting information inside the United States or from U.S. companies, to target almost any foreigner abroad and acquire all their communications without an individualized court order. Congress explicitly prohibited the targeting of Americans, and it charged the FISA Court with approving the program and its procedures once a year.
Although purportedly targeted at foreigners, Section 702 has become a rich source of warrantless government access to Americans’ phone calls, texts, and emails. Since Section 702 was last reauthorized, a series of disclosures has revealed the extent of this problem. In 2021 alone, the FBI conducted up to 3.4 million warrantless searches of Section 702 communications to find Americans’ information. This has turned Section 702 into something Congress never intended: a domestic spying tool.
Other equally serious problems have emerged. The secret and one-sided nature of FISA Court proceedings has undermined the court’s ability to conduct
https://thehill.com/policy/
FBI repeatedly misused surveillance tool, unsealed FISA order reveals
BY JARED GANS – 05/19/23 4:06 PM ET
https://www.theregister.com/
FBI: FISA Section 702 ‘absolutely critical’ to spy on, err, protect Americans
No protection without surveillance?
Fri 9 Jun 2023 // 20:30 UTC
https://www.thenation.com/
June 9, 2023
The FBI Is Back to Its Old Habits: Illegally Spying on Protesters
There should be no future for Section 702, an enduring vestige of the post-9/11 security state. To kill it, all Congress has to do is do nothing.
FBI misused intelligence database in 278,000 searches, court says
May 19, 2023
https://www.cato.org/
Time to End the FBI’s FISA Follies
Setting aside the question of whether or not FISA Section 702‐ derived data has ever been responsible for stopping an attack on the United States, there’s a much better way to ensure FBI compliance with FISA Section 702 in the future: require FBI agents to get a probable cause‐ based warrant from a federal judge to access said data.
MAY 25, 2023 • COMMENTARY
https://www.commondreams.org/
‘Chilling’: Rights Advocates Blast FBI for Abusing Surveillance Tool 278,000+ Times
“The FBI’s systematic misuse of these resources proves that it (and the rest of the federal government) simply can’t be trusted to wield this sort of power,” said one campaigner. “Let 702 die.”
Widespread FBI abuse of foreign spy law sets off “alarm bells,” tech group says
Section 702 debate rages after another FISA Court opinion is unclassified.
ASHLEY BELANGER – 5/23/2023
https://www.law.upenn.edu/
The FBI’s FISA Process Is Broken, But It Won’t Be Fixed by Legislative Manipulation of the FISA Statute
https://whowhatwhy.org/
I Spy with My Little FBI… Massive FISA Violations
KAI KNORR 05/25/23
The FBI has pulled off the impressive feat of getting both parties to agree on something. Republicans and Democrats alike expressed outrage at the Bureau after recent revelations of illegal spying on Americans, including Black Lives Matter protesters and people involved in the January 6th insurrection.
This scandal comes soon after the FBI vowed to stop abusing its powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Bureau has unveiled a new set of rules for its agents aimed at curbing wrongful surveillance of US citizens, but privacy advocates and a Democratic lawmaker say the new policies won’t put an end to these sorts of abuses.
This unconstitutional surveillance stems from Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which gives the FBI a broad mandate to spy on foreign targets without a warrant. The Bureau uses this “critical national security tool” to root out terrorist plots and espionage against the US.
When the Bureau intercepts the phone calls, texts, and emails of foreigners outside the United States, it also collects the data of the Americans whom these foreign targets contact. This can help the FBI uncover the American contacts of shady actors overseas.
However, it also gives the FBI the power to warrantlessly spy on US citizens who happen to contact foreign targets — whether they are involved in criminal activity or not.
“The trouble for civil liberties of Americans happens when people overseas call someone in the United States,” said Matthew Guariglia, senior policy analyst at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
BC cop who died by suicide was facing probe for texts with 15-year-old girl: court documents
Boston mayor under fire after sending list of critics and protesters to police
By Kyle Morris, Fox News
July 16, 2023
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, a Democrat, is facing criticism for “Nixonian tactics” after her administration admitted to creating a list of her most vocal critics and providing it to local authorities
https://nypost.com/2023/07/16/
Climate activists blast paint on Walmart heiress’ $300 million yacht in Ibiza
By Ronny Reyes
July 16, 2023
With our food systems on the verge of collapse, it’s the plutocrats v life on Earth
Southern Europe braces for second heat storm in a week
New system pushing into region from north Africa could lead to temperatures above record 48.8C
Lisa O’Carroll in Brussels, Angela Giuffrida in Rome, and Helena Smith in Athens
Sun 16 Jul 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/
‘Your heart races a bit’: US weather man threatened with death for mentioning climate crisis
Chris Gloninger wove the reality of global heating into his forecasts in the conservative heartland of Iowa. Not everyone was receptive
Sun 16 Jul 2023
https://www.theguardian.com/
Big oil quietly walks back on climate pledges as global heat records tumble
Energy firms have made record profits by increasing production of oil and gas, far from their promises of rolling back emissions
Sun 16 Jul 203
House GOP members push conspiracy theory that FBI instigated Jan. 6 despite lack of evidence
In Proud Boys Jan. 6 Sedition Trial, F.B.I. Informants Abound
The most recent informant to emerge from the trial is a Texas-based activist who became uncommonly close to some of the defendants, their lawyers and relatives.
‘At Least 40’ Undercover Informants Were Doing Surveillance On Jan. 6, Defense Lawyer Says
April 6th, 2023
How this FBI strategy is actually creating US-based terrorists
Trevor Aaronson • TED2015
https://www.amazon.com/Terror-
The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Maufactured War on Terrorism
October 21, 2014
A groundbreaking work of investigative journalism, The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism exposes how the FBI has, under the guise of engaging in counterterrorism since 9/11, built a network of more than fifteen thousand informants whose primary purpose is to infiltrate Muslim communities to create and facilitate phony terrorist plots so that the Bureau can then claim it is winning the
https://www.nytimes.com/1976/
Two Men Seized in New England Blasts/FBI Informant
July 5, 1976
https://dailyinterlake.com/
He said he would ask District Judge Kitty Curtis to sentence Aceto to life in prison.
“He is violent. In my opinion, he’s a sociopath. I have no doubt he would have killed somebody again, probably very soon.”
It
http://www.oocities.org/tom-
FBI SNITCH SENTENCED TO LIFE
In the series of trials which followed the capture of the Ohio 7, the government relied heavily upon the testimony of an informant named Joseph Aceto (aka: Joseph Balino), a former member of Statewide Correctional Alliance for Reform (SCAR), a prisoners-rights organization founded in Portland, Maine during the early 1970s by Tom Manning and Ray Luc Levasseur. Aceto offered considerable “evidence” concerning the original formation of the SMJJ, its evolution into UFF, and supposedly first-hand recollections of the defendants’ having described their bombing and bank-robbing exploits to him. Only later did it emerge conclusively that the government’s star witness had consistently lied under oath, passing off third-hand gossip and utter fabrications as conversations in which he himself had participated. It also came out that Aceto had been diagnosed as psychotic and administered heavy doses of the tranquilizer Mellaril – to “increase his veracity” – prior to testimony. To top things off, it was revealed that, in exchange for such testimony, the FBI had arranged for him to be released from prison where he was serving a life sentence for a brutal stabbing murder and placed on the federal witness protection program (a package with an $800 per month stipend). All this information had been withheld from the defense – and consequently from the jury – at trial.
FROM – The COINTELPRO Papers, Documents from the FBI’s Secret Wars, Against Dissent in the United States by Ward Churchill & Jim Vander Wall |
https://www.congress.gov/
. Rept. 108-414 – EVERYTHING SECRET DEGENERATES: THE FBI’S USE OF MURDERERS AS INFORMANTS
108th Congress (2003-2004)
University of Massachusetts – Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst
Masters Theses 1896 – February 2014 Dissertations and Theses
2011
SCAR’d Times: Maine’s Prisoners’ Rights Movement, 1971-1976
Daniel S. Chard
University of Massachusetts – Amherst, dchard@history.umass.edu
https://casetext.com/case/
United States v. Levasseur