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(Mises)—In 50 years since the Watergate scandal—famously resulting in President Richard Nixon’s resignation—there has been a flood of “post-Watergate morality,” in which Congress pushed through a number of “reforms” designed to curb government abuses. The Nixon Administration exerted great effort to conceal its organization of the break-in, as Nixon and his aides authorized a plan instructing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to interfere with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Watergate investigation. Their actions were an abuse of presidential power and a deliberate obstruction of justice.
A newspaper article published after Nixon’s resignation detailed the CIA Watergate cover-up, sourced from the Watergate prosecutor’s office, the FBI, and CIA staff. The Watergate investigation obstruction of justice began in the White House when it was revealed some of the five Watergate burglars had a CIA background. “This gave the White House conspirators an idea. They might be able to use the CIA to cover up their own connection with the crime,” using CIA resources.
Members of Congress claimed Watergate evils came from the misuse of presidential power, including use of the spy agency for unauthorized citizen surveillance from the White House. One solution to limit increased unauthorized surveillance of US citizens was to enact a law to limit the president and federal personnel from authorizing surveillance of US citizens. This response led naturally to expanded centralized surveillance power which was the opposite of their stated intention.
Beginning on January 27, 1975, a special 11-member Congressional investigative body looked into abuses of power by the nation’s intelligence agencies. Chaired by Idaho Democratic Senator Frank Church, the Church committee called more than 800 witnesses over nine months, including several former officials from the FBI and CIA.
The Church Committee findings resulted in Congress creating permanent intelligence oversight committees in the Senate and House. They proposed creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The bipartisan bill passed the House 246-128 and the Senate 95-1, and was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 25, 1978. The FISA was designed to prevent secret surveillance by the president and others in the federal government after Watergate. History shows how federal government surveillance grew over time when governing personnel were granted a new power by law.
The act created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) as a tribunal tasked with reviewing requests from federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies like the FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) who sought permission to begin wiretap surveillance on any “foreign power or an agent of a foreign power” within the US The FISC was comprised of seven federal district court judges (expanded to 11 judges in 2001). Each one is appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and each judge serves staggered, non-renewable terms of seven years.
Details of warrant requests are not publicly disclosed, except the number of approved or denied requests. More than 34,000 requests were made and only a dozen rejected (although the government has withdrawn some requests) as of 2013. The FISC faces criticism by many, including civil liberty advocates, who see it as a rubber stamp of government surveillance requests. After the September 11, 2001, terror attacks the newly-signed USA Patriot Act expanded FISA surveillance orders duration, allowed authorities to share information placed before a grand jury with other federal agencies, and permitted authorities to gather foreign intelligence information on US citizens and non-citizens.
Federal surveillance powers expanded through the 2007 Protect America Act, passed after revelations of widespread warrantless wiretapping during the George W. Bush administration. The 2007 law amended FISA by removing warrant requirements for federal surveillance of foreign intelligence targets outside the US and anyone in the US (including US citizens) that communicated with them. The 2007 law granted immunity to telecommunications companies who provided access to data to federal law enforcement agencies without a federal search warrant.
Surveillance powers metastasized by the 2015 USA Freedom Act, passed after the scandal of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, that aimed to end the NSA’s bulk collection of US telephone records and provide greater transparency in the FISA court system operations.
What started out after Watergate to prevent secret unauthorized surveillance of US citizens by the president and others in the federal government resulted with an abundance of secret and warrantless surveillance of US citizens and non-US citizens by the federal government. The executive branch surveillance power has grown in the past fifty years through use of the FISA courts. One lesson of supposed “reform” in Washington was really more centralization and expansion of federal surveillance power.
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Diddy Charges and Arrest Beg the Question: What Other Elite Hollywood Celebs Knew About ‘Freak Offs?’
by Outkick
Puff Daddy is finally facing the mother of all karma for his alleged sick and twisted behavior spanning a decade or more. At yesterday’s press conference, reporters asked the attorney why it took so long to get these charges and that’s a great question. Fs Sot 3 (5) Here’s another…
Is This Kamala’s Biggest Lie About Her Family Yet?
by Natural News
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris has falsely claimed that her grandfather was a freedom fighter in the Indian independence movement. The Democratic presidential nominee shared on Sept. 8 a picture of herself in India with her maternal grandfather P.V. Gopalan. She described him as a “retired civil servant who had…
What Did John Brennan Know?
by Frontpage Mag
In the wake of the second attempt on his life, Donald Trump flagged the “highly inflammatory language” Democrats have deployed against him, such as the charges of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris that the former president is a threat to democracy and so forth. When it comes to inflammatory language…
Are the White House and Pentagon Controlled by a Shadowy Few?
by Zero Hedge
As we approach the 2024 election, many Americans are disillusioned by the notion that their votes truly matter. Why? Because there’s a growing belief that a hidden force – often referred to as the Deep or Administrative State – wields disproportionate power behind the scenes. Despite our democratic process, can…
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Do We Have Another Instance Where the Secret Service Can’t Get Its Story Right?
by Townhall
Former President Donald Trump was nearly assassinated on September 15 while golfing in West Palm Beach. The former president’s trip to Trump International Golf Club was not planned, but would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh was waiting on the course, hiding in a shrubbery for 12 hours with a rifle and…
City Demands Pastor Take Down ‘Jesus’ Sign in Front of Church, Gets Epic Response From Him During Sermon
by Western Journal
Freedom-loving Americans cannot help but bemoan the mounting authoritarianism of both federal and state officials. As we discovered during the COVID era, however, sometimes Satan infects even our neighbors with the spirit of petty tyranny. In a clip posted Tuesday to the social media platform X, Pastor Mark Driscoll of…
Leftists Deserve the J6 Treatment
by J.B. Shurk
Remember: illegally appointed special counsel Jack Smith is prosecuting President Trump in D.C. for exercising his constitutional right to free speech after the 2020 election. Smith’s case essentially claims that Trump was not entitled to question the legitimacy of the mail-in ballot–tainted election and that his refusal to concede to Joe Biden…
Professor Teaches Students About Evil by Having Them Read Writings of Hitler’s Chief Propagandist
by Red State
A professor at the University of Austin ingeniously teaches students about “good and evil” by having them read the writings of some of the 20th century’s most evil people, including Adolf Hitler’s chief propagandist, Joseph Goebbels. Spoiler: I think it’s absolutely brilliant. Professor Marietta, who says Goebbels used “emotional appeal”…
Bombshell Lab Findings: Covid Jab Spike Proteins Likely Accelerate Cancer, Neurological Disorders, Dementia, Crohn’s, Lyme and More
by S.D. Wells, Natural News
(Natural News)—Back in February, U.S. Republican Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin held a roundtable discussion titled ‘Federal Health Agencies and the COVID Cartel: What Are They Hiding?’. In attendance at that forum was an internal medicine specialist and medical doctor named Sabine Hazan, who conducts and supervises clinical trials for cutting-edge…
Fan in MAGA Hat Denied Entry at Arizona Cardinals’ Home Stadium Unless She Threw It Away, Prompting Apology From Team
by The Blaze
The Arizona Cardinals organization has issued an apology after a fan was initially denied entry to the team’s home opener because she was wearing a Make America Great Again hat in support of the presidential candidacy of former President Donald Trump. On Sunday, thousands of football fans flocked to State…
New Report: State Department Funded Fact-Checkers to Censor ‘Lawful Speech’
by Michael Nevradakis Ph.D., The Defender
(The Defender)—The U.S. Department of State-funded domestic and international fact-checking entities that censored American independent media outlets and social media users who questioned the Biden administration’s COVID-19 and other policies, according to a congressional report. The report by the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business stated: “The Federal…
Springfield City Manager Admitted in March He’d ‘Heard’ About Haitian Migrants Eating ‘Domesticated Animals’
by The Post Millennial
A video from the Springfield City Commission meeting in March has resurfaced on Twitter, showing the Springfield, Ohio, City Manager Bryan Heck admitting that he had heard stories about Haitian immigrants to the town consuming “domesticated animals.” A resident of Springfield spoke to at the meeting and the City Manager,…
Did the Government Shield Diddy Like Epstein?
by Daily Wire
Some of the most revealing moments from the sordid saga of Jeffrey Epstein came when government officials were asked direct questions, then ducked them without any real explanation. Case in point: Five years ago, the Labor Secretary at the time, Alex Acosta, was speaking to reporters about his handling of…
Saudi Arabia Won’t Recognize Israel Without Palestinian State, Says Crown Prince
by End Times Headlines
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Wednesday said the kingdom would not recognize Israel without a Palestinian state and strongly condemned the “crimes of the Israeli occupation” against the Palestinian people. “The kingdom will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East…
Retired Border Patrol Chief Accuses Joe Biden, Kamala Harris of Attempting to Hide Mass Release of Migrants Into U.S.
by Breitbart
Retired Border Patrol Chief Aaron Heitke, who left his position at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in early 2023, says President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s administration has worked to hide the mass release of migrants into American communities. During a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on…
Less Than 50 Days Until Life in America Changes Forever, and Our Nation Is Primed for Massive Civil Unrest
by Michael Snyder
(The Economic Collapse Blog)—Years of extremely inflammatory rhetoric from the mainstream media and from many of our leaders have brought us to the brink of a societal nightmare. The numbers that I am about to share with you are horrifying, but it is so important for us to understand what…