Six ways we were blind to screaming red flags about government surveillance
By Sharyl Attkisson, opinion contributor — 12/20/19 10:00 AM EST
The secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court has given the FBI until Jan. 10 to address abuses and lapses identified by the Department of Justice inspector general (IG) in a recent report. That report heavily criticized FBI practices in its long-term spy case that produced no evidence of any American improperly conspiring with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Here are six ways we were blind to screaming red flags about government surveillance abuse:
FBI Woods Procedures: One red flag came with creation of FBI “Woods Procedures†nearly two decades ago under then-Director Robert Mueller. These rules were designed to appease the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which had flagged abuses by FBI officials in wiretap applications submitted to the court. The procedures require strict verification of all facts and sources in a wiretap application by FBI officials all the way up the chain. Facts that cannot be properly verified are to be removed from the application. The Woods Procedures were designed to prevent the very sorts of abuses that FBI officials committed in 2016 and 2017. The problem is, it’s left to the FBI to execute the safety check upon itself and, apparently, some officials weren’t capable of doing so faithfully. Why were the Woods Procedures set up if the FBI ultimately doesn’t follow them and nobody notices? What makes us think any new, proposed reforms will have a different fate?
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https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/475364-six-ways-we-were-blind-to-screaming-red-flags-about-government
