Section 702 is the section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act under which the U.S. government conducts warrantless electronic surveillance. Per John Kiriakou it is “a section that directly takes our constitutional freedoms away from us in the name of national security.” It is the authority that NSA whistleblower Tom Drake and Edward Snowden first made publicly known in the summer of 2013.[1][2]
Scale of misuse
Per Kiriakou, citing the Brennan Center for Justice: the FBI has made “over 200,000” illegal queries against the Section 702 database, including a recent two-year window in which there were approximately 78,000 misuse queries.[2][3]
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is, in Kiriakou’s framing, a rubber stamp: of ~34,000 FISA warrant applications, estimates range from 11 to 120 denied — “hundredths of one percent.” Kiriakou’s go-to example of the cost: “Ask Carter Page how that worked out for him.”[4]
The biennial renewal pattern
Section 702 comes up for reauthorization every two years. Each cycle, per Kiriakou, “a couple more people will go over to the no side, but not in any numbers to actually mean something.”[5]
The Trump reversal
Donald Trump campaigned against Section 702 in 2016. After taking office, per Kiriakou, Trump said “he talked to three dozen generals and admirals and every single one of them said we have to have 702 to keep America safe. So I support the reauthorization of Section 702.” Kiriakou: “Okay, that’s exactly the opposite of what you ran on.”[6][7]
Why it persists
Kiriakou’s diagnosis: there are no replacement systems being demanded, because there is no political will. “How 702 keeps us safe when we have other electronic means to keep us just as safe without spying on American citizens unconstitutionally — nobody’s ever explained.”[7]