Political Quotes

“I thank my friend, the chairman of our committee, the Senator from North Carolina, for his work on this important piece of legislation. I obviously rise today in support of passage of S. 139, the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017. This bill would provide significant reforms that enhance the civil liberties and privacy protections of individuals, while preserving an authority critical to our national security for an additional 6 years. As vice chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have long advocated for reforms to surveillance authorities that balance the imperatives of national security and counterterrorism with the privacy rights and civil liberties of Americans. Section 702 stands among the most important of our intelligence programs. To illustrate, I wish to highlight very briefly one recently declassified success story involving a terrorist by the name of Hajji Iman. Hajji Iman was the second in command of ISIS based in Syria. NSA spent more than 2 years looking for him. This search was ultimately successful, primarily because of FISA section 702. NSA used collection permitted and authorized under section 702 to collect intelligence on the close associates and the network supporting Mr. Iman, including their location in Syria. Between section 702 and other intelligence that was developed, the IC was able to track down the movements of Mr. Iman and ultimately resulted in taking him off the battlefield.…”