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espionage

Biden expands government’s power to spy on Americans without a warrant

Published

9 months ago

7 minute read

From LifeSiteNews

By Emily Mangiaracina

Legal experts have pointed out that under an updated version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), delivery personnel, cleaning contractors, and utility providers could all be forced to surveil Americans.

U.S. President Joe Biden has quietly signed legislation reauthorizing and expanding the government’s ability to spy on American communications without a warrant.

On April 20, Biden signed the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that allows the government to compel a broader range of businesses to collect the communications of U.S. citizens when they are in contact with foreigners, according to legal experts.

The newly passed, updated version of Section 702 accomplishes this by expanding the definition of “electronic communication service providers” who can receive FISA directives to tap communications by dropping the qualifier “communication” from electronic service providers. The new amendment, therefore, makes access merely to equipment on which communications are carried or stored enough to legally surveil Americans.

While the amendment lists types of businesses that cannot be considered Electronic Communication Service Providers (ECSPs), including public accommodations, dwellings, and restaurants, ZwillGenBlog points out that the law still allows the government to “compel the assistance of a wide range of additional entities and persons in conducting surveillance under FISA 702.”

“The breadth of the new definition is obvious from the fact that the drafters felt compelled to exclude such ordinary places such as senior centers, hotels, and coffee shops. But for these specific exceptions, the scope of the new definition would cover them — and scores of businesses that did not receive a specific exemption remain within its purview,” ZwillGenBlog explained.

The legal experts noted that among the entities that could be forced to surveil Americans under the amendment are “the owners and operators of facilities that house equipment used to store or carry data, such as data centers and buildings owned by commercial landlords,” as well as others who can access such equipment, including “delivery personnel, cleaning contractors, and utility providers.”

ZwillGenBlog also pointed out that “any U.S. business could have its communications” — if involving a foreigner — “tapped by a landlord with access to office wiring, or the data centers where their computers reside.”

Democratic U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois had tried and failed to pass an amendment that would require government officials to obtain a warrant before spying on American communications, according to the Associated Press (AP).

“If the government wants to spy on my private communications or the private communications of any American, they should be required to get approval from a judge, just as our Founding Fathers intended in writing the Constitution,” Durbin said.

Under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed in 2008, the National Security Agency (NSA), operating inside the United States, is authorized to collect communications of foreigners overseas for foreign intelligence purposes without a warrant “because courts have held that foreigners have no Fourth Amendment rights,” according to Elizabeth Goitein.

“Although ostensibly targeted at foreigners, Section 702 surveillance inevitably sweeps in massive amounts of Americans’ communications,” Goitein further noted.

“Recognizing the impact on Americans’ privacy, Congress required the NSA to ‘minimize’ the sharing, retention, and use of this ‘incidentally’ collected U.S. person data. But the government and the FISA Court have embraced an interpretation of ‘minimize’ that is remarkably … maximal.”

“The NSA shares raw data with multiple other agencies — including the FBI and the CIA — and all of them retain the data for a functional minimum of five years. Moreover, the FBI routinely combs through it looking for Americans’ communications to use in purely domestic cases, even in situations where the FBI lacks a factual predicate to open a full investigation,” Goitein continued.

There are other means by which the U.S. government can spy on Americans. In 2022, Biden issued an executive order (EO) that allows the government to surveil Americans for broadly defined reasons including understanding “public health risks,” “political instability,” and the “threat” of climate change.

The EO was ostensibly written to “enhanc[e] safeguards” for “United States Signals Intelligence Activities,” which is intelligence gathering by the interception of signals, including communications, such as through cell phones, or those not used in communication. An accompanying fact sheet explains that the EO is meant to help “implement the U.S. commitments under the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF)” in an effort to “restore trust and stability” to transatlantic data flows.

Alongside permitting spying for the purposes of sizing up the capabilities of foreign entities, the EO permits signals intelligence collection for “understanding or assessing transnational threats that impact global security, including climate and other ecological change, public health risks, humanitarian threats, political instability, and geographic rivalry.”

The document’s lack of elaboration on such so-called “transnational threats” raises the question of the true scope of activity now officially subject to spying by the U.S. government, which is potentially massive.

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espionage

Non-citizens could choose Canada’s next prime minister thanks to Liberal Party rules

Published on January 9, 2025

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From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Liberals have refused to change their membership rule which allow non-citizens to vote in leadership races despite concerns that this could lead to foreign interference in selecting a prime minister to replace Trudeau

The Liberal Party has refused to change their membership rules for the upcoming leadership race, meaning Canada’s next prime minister could effectively be chosen by non-Canadians.  

On January 7 the Liberals confirmed that their membership rules allowing non-citizens to vote in leadership races will remain intact despite concerns that this could lead to foreign interference in selecting a prime minister to replace Justin Trudeau, who has announced he is stepping down. 

According to information shared with CBC News, the Liberal Party “doesn’t intend to change or reinterpret rules in its 2016 constitution that Elections Canada has suggested could make the vote be at least as vulnerable to such efforts as previous leadership races.”  

Following Trudeau’s resignation, the Liberal Party is preparing for a leadership race. In addition to being the new Liberal leader, the winning candidate will automatically serve as prime minister at least until an election is held, which could be as late as October.

Currently, the Liberal Party rules do not require proof of Canadian citizenship to join the party, but only that the person “ordinarily live[s] in Canada or, for Canadians living abroad, be qualified as an elector who may vote in accordance with part 11 of the Canada Elections Act.”  

Additionally, while voters must by 18 years-old to participate in the Federal Election, voters as young as 14-years-old can participate in the Liberal’s leadership race provided they “support the purposes of the Party.” 

Many have pointed out that the loose rules will allow any number of non-citizens, from China, India, Russia or any part of the world, to effectively help select the interim prime minister.   

According to Statistics Canada, there are now more than three million non-permanent residents living in Canada who are eligible to vote for the new Liberal leader and consequently, the prime minister.  

Even some Liberal MPs have called for more strict rules to safeguard the upcoming leadership race, noting the potential dangers of their open policy.   

In response to foreign interference claims, the Foreign Interference Commission was convened in late 2023 to “examine and assess the interference by China, Russia, and other foreign states or non-state actors, including any potential impacts, to confirm the integrity of, and any impacts on, the 43rd and 44th general elections (2019 and 2021 elections) at the national and electoral district levels.”   

The commission is headed by Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, who had earlier said she and her lawyers will remain “impartial” and will not be influenced by politics. In January 2024, Hogue said that she would “uncover the truth whatever it may be.”   

As reported by LifeSiteNews, documents from a federal inquiry looking at meddling in Canada’s past two elections by foreign state actors show that agents of the CCP allegedly worked at Elections Canada polling centers during the 2021 campaign.   

To date, Trudeau has been coy and has never explicitly stated whether he was ever told by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that CCP agents’ actions were in breach of the nation’s Elections Act.   

A few months ago, the head of Canada’s intelligence agency testified under oath that he gave Trudeau multiple warnings that agents of the CCP were going after Conservative MPs, yet the prime minister has denied receiving these warnings.   

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espionage

Retired Army Intelligence Officer says Vegas Cybertruck bomber may be whistleblower on east coast drone invasion

Published on January 4, 2025

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A guest Friday’s “The Shawn Ryan Show” podcast says Las Vegas Cybertruck bomber Matthew Livelsberger emailed him with an incredible claim.

Retired Army Intelligence Officer Sam Shoemate said Livelsberger claimed he was being followed by Homeland Security because they know he’s trying to reveal a high-level coverup of “advanced drone technology” launched by China.

During the podcast, The Shawn Ryan Show discovered they’d also received an email from Livelsberger. On the X platform, Ryan released the email as revealed by Shoemate.

The suspected Cybertruck bomber said he’s releasing this information to reveal the existence of “gravitic propulsion systems” which civilians have recently recognized as “drones” flying over the US east coast.

Livelsberger says only the US and China have this technology and China is demonstrating that they could use it. He calls these systems the “most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed” and says “China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast”.

 

The entire email reads:

“In case I do not make it to my decision point or on to the Mexico border I am sending this now. Please do not release this until 1JAN and keep my identity private until then.

“First off I am not under duress or hostile influence or control. My first car was a 2006 Black Ford Mustang V6 for verification.

“What we have been seeing with ‘drones’ is the operational use of gravitic propulsion systems powered aircraft by most recently China in the east coast, but throughout history, the US. Only we and China have this capability. Our OPEN location for this activity in the box is below.

“China has been launching them from the Atlantic from submarines for years, but this activity recently has picked up. As of now, it is just a show of force and they are using it similar to how they used the balloon for sigint and isr, which are also part of the integrated coms system. There are dozens of those balloons in the air at any given time.

“The so what is because of the speed and stealth of these unmanned AC, they are the most dangerous threat to national security that has ever existed. They basically have an unlimited payload capacity and can park it over the WH if they wanted. It’s checkmate.

“USG needs to give the history of this, how we are employing it and weaponizing it, how China is employing them and what the way forward is. China is poised to attack anywhere in the east coast.

“I’ve been followed for over a week now from likely homeland or FBI, and they are looking to move on me and are unlikely going to let me cross into Mexico, but won’t because they know I am armed and I have a massive VBIED. I’ve been trying to maintain a very visible profile and have kept my phone and they are definitely digitally tracking me.”  (VBIED – vehicle-borne explosive device)

Livelsberger’s email concludes by alleging the coverup of “war crimes” in Afghanistan’s Nimruz Province that “killed hundreds of civilians in a single day.”

He begs the recipients of his email to verify his claims so the public receives this information without any influence from government agencies.   “You need to elevate this to the media so we avoid a world war because this is a mutually assured destruction situation.”

In the Shawn Ryan podcast interview, Sam Shoemate suggested Livelsberger might actually still be alive.

Considering all this potentially explosive information, podcaster Shawn Ryan said he’s “disappearing” for a while.

The full interview, which as of Saturday afternoon has been viewed nearly 12 million times on X and nearly 4 million times on YouTube, can be seen here:

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