The Biden administration has issued an executive order that removes the safeguards against spying on American citizens without a warrant.
The executive order, ironically named the “Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities,” allows the federal government to bypass provisions in order to gather personal information “through signals intelligence.”
“The Executive Order establishes enhanced safeguards in recognition that signals intelligence activities must be conducted in a manner that takes into account that all persons should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their nationality or wherever they might reside, and that all persons have legitimate privacy interests in the handling of their personal information,” the order states.
“In addition, signals intelligence activities present the potential for national security damage if improperly disclosed. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the policy process refined by section 3 of PPD-28 and supplemented by the classified annex to PPD-28, under which national security policymakers consider carefully the value of signals intelligence activities to our national interests and the risks entailed in conducting those activities,” the order continued.
Several security experts condemned the new order, as they feared that it would demolish Americans’ civil liberties.
“Holy cow what a Friday news dump. Joe Biden just rescinded executive branch rules that prevent spying on American citizens,” tweeted Will Chamberlain, Senior Counsel at the Internet Accountability Project and the Article 3 Project.
This comes months after court-ordered information surfaced showing that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spied on over 3.3 million American citizens without first obtaining a warrant.
According to Ohio Reps. Jim Jordan and Mike Turner, the FBI took advantage of its Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to gather intelligence against Americans who have had any interactions with foreign entities targeted by the federal government.
A total of 3,394,053 searches were made against individual American citizens, a 250% increase in searches during Biden’s first year in office. In contrast, there were 1,324,057 total queries made in 2020.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in response that more than half of these searches were part of a larger investigation of alleged attempts by Russian nationals to target America’s infrastructure.
