The Importance of Surveillance Programs in Solving Major Cases

Senior US government officials have warned of serious national security risks if the Section 702 statute of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) is not renewed. The statute allows US agencies to conduct warrantless searches of information of non-Americans living outside the US, which includes communications carried out via US telecom or email providers. The officials declined to share specifics of cases in which the program had been useful, but said that the database is critical to countering threats against the US. Critics, including rights groups and some members of Congress, are calling for substantial reforms and requiring a warrant for searches of Americans' information on the database.