{"id":277466,"date":"2023-12-08T08:00:33","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T08:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=277466"},"modified":"2023-12-09T06:45:14","modified_gmt":"2023-12-09T06:45:14","slug":"fbi-chief-warns-hamas-inspired-terror-threats-have-reached-unprecedented-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=277466","title":{"rendered":"FBI Chief Warns Hamas-Inspired Terror Threats Have Reached Unprecedented Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

James Farrell \u2013 Forbes Dec 5, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

FBI Director Christopher Wray (pictured above) claimed Tuesday terror threats have stood at an unprecedented level since Hamas\u2019 attack on Israel in October, as he urged lawmakers in a congressional hearing to renew a controversial law that allows for the warrantless surveillance of certain foreign targets, claiming it has crucial national security value.<\/p>\n

Key Facts<\/strong><\/h2>\n

A law called Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is set to expire next month, and Wray devoted a significant portion of his opening statement<\/a> at Tuesday\u2019s Senate Oversight Committee hearing to defending the program.<\/p>\n

Failing to renew the program would be tantamount to \u201cunilateral disarmament\u201d against terror threat levels that have been rising since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, Wray said, noting \u201ca steady drumbeat\u201d of calls for attacks by terrorist organizations inspired by Hamas.<\/p>\n

While terror levels were elevated prior to Oct. 7, they\u2019ve gone to \u201ca whole other level\u201d since then, with \u201ca veritable rogues gallery of foreign terrorist organizations calling for attacks against us,\u201d Wray told Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).<\/p>\n

In a separate statement to CNN<\/a>, Wray said there\u2019s no information to indicate that Hamas \u201chas the intent or capability to conduct operations through the U.S.\u201d but that the FBI has not discounted that possibility, and is concerned about Hamas supporters \u201cengaging in violence on the group\u2019s behalf.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program, which allows U.S. intelligence to collect communications of foreign targets without a warrant, has garnered scrutiny for years due to the FBI\u2019s handling of the gathered intelligence data, which often includes information about Americans who are not targets of the investigation but are included in communications.<\/p>\n

But Wray told Congress the agency is \u201ccommitted to being good stewards of our authorities\u201d and has instituted \u201ca whole host of changes to address compliance incidents\u201d in hopes of getting the program renewed.<\/p>\n

Wray also resisted proposals to add a warrant requirement for FBI agents to access Section 702 information regarding Americans, arguing that such a requirement would hamper the FBI\u2019s ability to respond to fast-moving threats.<\/p>\n

Crucial Quote<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWhile there have been many times over the years where individual threats could have been higher here or there than where they may be right now, I\u2019ve never seen a time where all the threats or so many of the threats are all elevated, all at exactly the same time,\u201d Wray told Graham.<\/p>\n

Chief Critic<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) was outraged over Wray\u2019s opposition to adding a warrant requirement for U.S. citizens in Section 702. \u201cYou have a lot of gall, sir,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is disgraceful. The Fourth Amendment requires more than that, and you know it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Key Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Section 702 was first passed in 2008, following years of warrantless foreign surveillance programs that ramped up in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001. Privacy advocates have long argued these programs can illegally vacuum up Americans\u2019 data without a search warrant, though national security officials say they\u2019re necessary to stave off terror threats. In recent years, Republicans have criticized FBI surveillance practices, particularly after the FBI\u2019s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. A 2019 Justice Department Inspector General\u2019s report<\/a> found the FBI made serious mistakes in obtaining a warrant to eavesdrop on former Trump adviser Carter Page. Earlier this year, the FBI\u2019s use of FISA garnered fresh criticisms from both parties when disclosures in FISA court\u2014a court that secretly approves warrants for certain types of surveillance\u2014revealed that agents improperly searched intel garnered under Section 702 of FISA for information on U.S. citizens, including Jan. 6 suspects, Black Lives Matter protesters and even U.S. politicians. <\/a>Many Democrats, like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), have criticized the surveillance program, and there are competing bills on the floor calling for significant reforms. Wray, in his opening remarks Tuesday, said that the FBI has set up a new \u201cOffice of Internal Auditing\u201d focused specifically on FISA compliance. He said that more recent data shows improvement, with a 98% compliance rate. Wray\u2019s appearance Tuesday also comes as Republicans continue to attack the FBI on a host of issues\u2014from investigations into Hunter Biden to the investigation into Jan. 6 and former President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Are Americans being conditioned mentally for a false flag to be blames on Hamas?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[118,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-7-10-gaza-war","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=277466"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277518,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277466\/revisions\/277518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=277466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=277466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=277466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}