Tulsi Gabbard, Director Of National Intelligence, Backtracks On FISA Section 702 To Protect Warrantless Searches And Invasive Spying On Americans - Deep State Spying Continues
Tulsi Gabbard is World Economic Forum Young Global Leader
Last week, Tulsi Gabbard was officially confirmed as President Trump’s Director of National Intelligence. The former progressive Democratic presidential candidate and former Representative from Hawaii converted to the Republican party in 2024, but before that was steadily becoming a favorite among those in independent and right-leaning circles. However, weeks before her confirmation hearing, Gabbard, like so many others before her, backtracked on her criticism of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Section 702, and is now a proponent of it.
FISA Section 702, after it was renewed and updated last year, allows the National Security Agency (NSA), a subsidiary of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), to conduct warrantless searches on Americans; along with practically all digital records and telecommunications associated with the individual to be at the NSA’s ready access.
The Electric Frontier Foundation (EFF) summarized in a blog post last year what Section 702 does:
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.
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.
Moreover, former Fox News host Judge Andrew Napolitano, a strong critic of FISA Section 702, warns: “Since Department of Justice lawyers have persuaded the FISA Court to issue warrants to spy on Americans who communicate with foreigners out to the sixth degree of communication, the NSA has contended that Section 702 also permits it to spy out to the sixth degree. Call your cousin in Geneva and NSA can spy on everyone with whom you speak and everyone to whom they speak and so on, out to the sixth level of communication.”
In 2021 it was reported by Cyber Scoop that the FBI exploited the FISA Act to carry out 3.4 million warrantless searches that year alone.
The Dispatch notes that Gabbard has been a fierce opponent of FISA for years:
When Gabbard represented Hawaii in the House, she repeatedly spoke out against Section 702. In May 2020, she voted against renewing the authority because the reauthorization bill did not have the alterations to the statute she was looking for. “None of the reforms protect the American people from illegal warrantless surveillance. None of the reforms prevent the secret FISA Court from abusing the constitutional rights of Americans. None of the reforms provide real protection against surveillance orders targeted at activities protected under the First Amendment,” she said at the time. Months later, she sponsored a bill to repeal the authority altogether that also would have forced the director of national intelligence and attorney general to destroy any data collected on an American under Section 702, so long as it is not related to an ongoing investigation.
In the lead-up to her nomination in January, Tulsi tried to claim that she was ignorant of what the act entails, but promises to protect 4th Amendment rights of Americans while still keeping this powerful tool of big brother in place. In a statement to Punchbowl News, Gabbard told the publication:
“If confirmed as DNI, I will uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702 to ensure the safety and freedom of the American people.
“My prior concerns about FISA were based on insufficient protections for civil liberties, particularly regarding the FBI’s misuse of warrantless search powers on American citizens. Significant FISA reforms have been enacted since my time in Congress to address these issues.”
Gabbard echoed something similar to CNN: "My prior concerns about FISA were based on insufficient protections for civil liberties, particularly regarding the FBI’s misuse of warrantless search powers on American citizens.
"Significant FISA reforms have been enacted since my time in Congress to address these issues. If confirmed as DNI, I will uphold Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights while maintaining vital national security tools like Section 702 to ensure the safety and freedom of the American people,” she added.
Gabbard’s new support for FISA was corroborated by other GOP members she spoke with. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) told Punchbowl in a comment: “Tulsi Gabbard has assured me in our conversations that she supports Section 702 as recently amended and that she will follow the law and support its reauthorization as DNI,” Cotton said.
Another member of the Intelligence Committee, Mike Rounds (R-SD), told The Dispatch: “In my discussions with her, she had earlier been opposed to it. However, she did not know about the modifications that have been made to 702 over the last 10 years and the additional safeguards that have been built in. And now, my understanding in my discussions with her is that she understands how critical it is and that we cannot do a good job of providing intel briefs without the use of 702 provisions.”
Napolitano points out that “the FBI reported that in 2021, it searched 3.4 million names in the NSA database of Americans who communicated with foreigners. If you take those 3.4 million out to the sixth degree of their American communications, the number grows exponentially. You will have reached 330 million Americans before completion of the process.”
FISA Section 702 will be up for renewal in 2026, and in all likelihood it will succeed again.
But Gabbard is not the first critic to capitulate and change their tune.
President Donald Trump, who was also once critical of it, also changed his tune on statute. When it came up for renewal in 2018, Napolitano, who was still on Fox News at the time, looked right into the camera and urged Trump not to sign it.
Trump then tweeted not long after that he was not going to sign it. However, as Napolitano explained in an interview last year with Trends Journal founder Gerald Celente, the Judge recounted how after he put out a national plea to Trump to veto the legislation, apparently figures such as Mike Pence, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, Mark Meadows, rushed Trump’s office urging him not to listen to Napolitano. Trump eventually capitulated, and would later privately message the Judge saying, “they twisted my arm, I signed it.”
Trump would later write in an official statement from President Trump’s desk:
Reauthorizing these authorities before they expire on January 19, 2018, in a manner that preserves their effectiveness, is a top priority of the Administration.
The Administration would prefer a clean and permanent extension of section 702 of FISA. The bill would, however, provide for a six-year reauthorization of section 702, a critical extension that will keep America safe from those who wish to do us harm.
Last year, GOP Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who was also an opponent of the act, capitulated as well, The WinePress documented.
A bipartisan Congress voted 273-147 to renew the deep surveillance clause under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), Section 702. The clause comes up for renewal every five years to allow representatives to debate its necessity. This time, in order to sway some Republicans, the renewal date was lowered to two years.
But before the final vote was taken, an amendment was proposed that would force the FBI to obtain a warrant to access these critical records and communications, but was deadlocked at 212-212, with Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson acting as the tiebreaker to shootdown the amendment.
Johnson had previously signaled that he was against this loophole the FISA act granted, and was prepared to vote against it, but in the days leading up to the vote he explained that he was convinced to change his tune. Johnson said at the time:
“When I was a member of [the House Judiciary Committee], I saw the abuses of the FBI, the terrible abuses over and over and over … and then when I became speaker I went to the SCIF and got the confidential briefing on sort of the other perspective on that to understand the necessity of section 702 of FISA and how important it is for national security. And it gave me a different perspective.”
Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA turned whistleblower, has warned that this move effectively allows the U.S. government to takeover the internet. He said in a post on X, the “NSA is just DAYS from taking over the internet,” but is not even getting the proper attention it needs. This was in response to Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, who also warned that the NSA will now have immense powers to surveil Americans.
Coin Telegraph reports (excerpts):
Currently, the NSA can force internet service providers such as Google and Verizon to hand over sensitive data concerning NSA targets.
However, Goitein claims that through an “innocuous change” to the definition of “electronic communications surveillance provider” in the FISA 702 bill, the U.S. government could go far beyond its current scope and force nearly every company and individual that provides any internet-related service to assist with NSA surveillance.
That sweeps in an enormous range of U.S. businesses that provide wifi to their customers and therefore have access to equipment on which communications transit. Barber shops, laundromats, fitness centers, hardware stores, dentist’s offices.
Additionally, the people forced to hand over data would be unable to discuss the information provided due to hefty gag order penalties and conditions outlined in the bill, added Goitein.
[…] According to Goitein, the amendment did very little to reduce the scope of surveillance granted to the NSA.
In her view, the amendment could even see service providers such as cleaners, plumbers and IT service providers that have access to laptops and routers inside people’s homes be forced to provide information and serve as “surrogate spies,” claimed Goitein.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden described the bill as “terrifying” and said he would do everything in his power to prevent it from being passed through the Senate. “This bill represents one of the most dramatic and terrifying expansions of government surveillance authority in history.”
Republican Congressperson Anna Paulina Luna, who voted against the bill in the House of Representatives, said Section 702 was an “irresponsible extension” of the NSA’s powers. Luna added that if government agencies wanted access to data, they must be forced to apply for a warrant.
Tulsi’s Ties To The WEF
Though she is well-received in conservative and GOP circles, Gabbard is also a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, The WP noted in 2022. Since then, Tulsi has tried to scrub some of the internet of this fact, but traces still exist.
This is, of course, is the same institution that says people by 2030 will “Own nothing and be happy.”
Roughly two years ago, Gabbard was asked about her affiliation as a guest on Ask Dr. Drew, where she basically denied affiliation with the group, claiming that she was listed as a Young Global Leader without her consent - contradicting her previous remarks.
In keeping with these WEF philosophies, Gabbard introduced one of the most aggressive climate bills during the time she was in office. PBS wrote in 2019,
One of the most aggressive pieces of climate change legislation in Congress, Gabbard’s “OFF Fuels for a Better Future Act” would mandate a dramatic move away from fossil fuels. The plan would require electric utilities to use 80 percent renewable resources by 2027 and 100 percent by 2035. In addition, it would set similar goals for car emissions, mandating zero emissions by 2050. Finally, it would end all subsidies and tax breaks for fossil fuels and it would ban fracking.
On top of this, PBS also noted that she is for tuition-free community college for all and tuition-free public university for most families, backing Bernie Sanders’ proposals. She also wanted “Medicare for All,” a universal, government-sponsored health care system. She is also pro-late-term-abortion and in favor of protecting the rights of the LGTBQIA+ community.
Lastly, Gabbard has also been in favor of universal basic income (UBI). She, along with infamous Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, both called for UBI in March of 2020 and attempted to get her version of it wedged into Trump’s $6.2 trillion CARES Act. She said at the time:
“The coronavirus pandemic has created a threat to the health and well-being of the American people, as well as to our country’s economic stability. While some in Washington are focused on taking care of Wall Street, everyday Americans get left behind. That’s wrong.
“I’ve introduced a resolution that prioritizes people so our economic relief is placed directly into the hands of every American, rather than getting stuck in bureaucracy or ending up in the pockets of big corporations.”
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
It’s funny because in 2022, the two times I reported on her meteoric rise (when she began filling-in for Tucker Carlson, giving her the primetime slot on the most-watched cable news network), I warned in each report that she was being groomed for a much greater role. She succeeded in bringing some progressives and Democrat-moderates over to the ‘other side,’ and then underwent a rebranding campaign to make her seem more approachable and likeable to the ‘Right.’ But, she needed to be floated out to conservative and MAGA media for a few years so people could come to accept her.
She, like all the others, is a liar and a deceiver; and she too now is overseeing an already Orwellian department of government that works hand-in-hand with Big-Tech (the same entities that Trump is now openly embracing as part of his administration). Some see her for who she really is, but the broader masses are none the wiser.
Please don’t fall for the smile and “Aloha!” she does: she is a political charlatan.
Proverbs 5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: [2] That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. [3] For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: [4] But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Will DOGE “audit” and “cut spending” for this department? I think we already know the answer.
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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I'm kinda surprised that Trump will allow this kind of spying on people.
Just missing the carrot to go with the streak.....