US legal professionals accuse the US government of abusing its power to illegally monitor the situation of its citizens | US | US government
Recently, retired judge Lillian Singh of the California High Court and former assistant federal prosecutor Brian Sun of California Central stated on an online forum that the US government is abusing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to illegally monitor US citizens.
Lillian Singh stated that according to the law, individuals suspected of committing crimes can only be monitored on reasonable grounds. But in fact, some law enforcement agencies in the United States often obtain data information from Americans without authorization through Section 702. Singh stated that in the past few years, Section 702 has been used by the US government to monitor Americans, especially Asian Americans working in science and academia, and has become an important target of unauthorized surveillance, which has led to many erroneous and unfair prosecutions.
Brian Sun confirmed Singh's statement, stating that he had had two private conversations with clients recently, but the clients were subsequently sued. It was only then that he realized that his confidential communication with the parties had been eavesdropped by law enforcement.
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In 2008, the United States revised the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by adding Section 702 as an official provision. This provision allows the National Security Agency to monitor the selected "foreign target" and collect its telephone, SMS and Internet communication content without the permission of the court. This provision also allows for the collection of information related to Americans who communicate with foreigners, regardless of whether they are within the United States.
Regarding this, some American civil society organizations have pointed out that on the surface, Article 702 allows the government to monitor targets outside the United States and prohibits "intentional targeting of American citizens.". However, some law enforcement agencies, including the US National Security Agency, often obtain communication information from Americans who are unrelated to crime without reasonable justification.
This is not the first time that Article 702 has been accused of being abused by the US government. On the 19th of last month, a declassified court document released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the United States showed that FBI personnel had frequently "casually used" a surveillance database containing private emails, text messages, and other communication information of US citizens in the past few years. This database was established under Section 702. According to regulations, FBI personnel have the right to use this database only when investigating foreign-related intelligence cases. But the investigation found that in just a few years, FBI personnel have used this database more than 278000 times, with most cases having "no reasonable reason". The data they search for is not only unrelated to foreign intelligence, but also not related to domestic criminal activities.
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