The White House has issued an executive order that removes the safeguards against spying on American citizens without a warrant.
“The Executive Order of October 7, 2022 (Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities), establishes enhanced safeguards for United States signals intelligence activities that supersede the safeguards for personal information collected through signals intelligence established by Presidential Policy Directive 28 of January 17, 2014 (Signals Intelligence Activities) (PPD-28),” the executive order states.
“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 continues. “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 executive order then states the provisions to be revoked:
The following is the text of PPD 18 that are being revoked, as was issued under former President Barack Obama. Section 1:
Section 1. Principles Governing the Collection of Signals Intelligence.
Section 2:
Section 4:
- Dissemination: Personal information shall be disseminated only if the dissemination of comparable information concerning U.S. persons would be permitted under section 2.3 of Executive Order 12333.
- Retention: Personal information shall be retained only if the retention of comparable information concerning U.S. persons would be permitted under section 2.3 of Executive Order 12333 and shall be subject to the same retention periods as applied to comparable information concerning U.S. persons. Information for which no such determination has been made shall not be retained for more than 5 years, unless the DNI expressly determines that continued retention is in the national security interests of the United States.
Section 5:
As Will Chamberlain, Senior Counsel at the Internet Accountability Project and the Article 3 Project, put it on Twitter: “Holy cow what a Friday news dump. Joe Biden just rescinded executive branch rules that prevent spying on American citizens.”
The Biden administration is demolishing Americans’ civil liberties before our very eyes.
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