The Office of the Director of National Intelligence [ODNI] has released a 117-page April 2023 order/opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court [FISC] about the compliance audit conducted by internal review as the U.S. intelligence agencies seek reauthorization. Everything FISC happens in secret, and the report is heavily redacted; however, some interesting information can be obtained if you read the report carefully.
Here’s an example. The FISC is now agreeing with the NSA and FBI that all search logs and audit trails should be erased after 10 years from query. That means every audit trail from the period up to August 2013 is about to be erased. That means almost all of the Obama era search queries will disappear before the next administration takes office.
They are not erasing our data; they are erasing the logs of their search inquiries into our data. FU!
Readers here know my position. I do not believe the FISA court is needed; nor do I believe the NSA, FBI, NCTC or CIA should have any search access to the metadata [full-scope electronic records] of American Citizens without a court order.
The DOJ and FBI should go to the ordinary federal courts for search warrants. The CIA and National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) both have foreign service missions, so they do not need access to American citizen metadata (702 acquired). Why would the CIA and NCTC need to snoop into the private data of American citizens when their legislative authority forbids them from conducting domestic surveillance? Additionally, the NSA should not contain a lifetime repository for all electronic records of American citizens. That’s my opinion.