The Invisible System Isn’t Invisible Anymore

There’s a reason certain things always seem to happen quietly.

Confirmation hearings.

Reauthorizations.

Renewals tucked into must-pass legislation.

They’re not meant to draw attention. They’re meant to pass.

As the Senate moves forward with confirmation hearings for new leadership at the National Security Agency, Congress is once again preparing to decide whether to renew FISA Section 702, a surveillance authority that was never intended to be used on Americans, yet has been repeatedly renewed despite years of documented misuse.

(https://theintercept.com/2026/01/26/nsa-joshua-rudd-confirmation-hearings-senate-pick/)

That overlap matters.

Because leadership changes do not reset the record. And the record is no longer ambiguous.

Section 702 was designed to collect foreign intelligence from non-U.S. persons located outside the United States. That is the statutory justification. But over the past decade, courts, oversight bodies, and even the government itself have repeatedly acknowledged that Americans’ communications are swept up, retained, and later searched, often without a warrant.

These are not allegations. They are findings.

Federal courts have ruled that warrantless “backdoor” searches of Americans’ communications collected under Section 702 violate the Fourth Amendment. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has issued multiple opinions documenting “substantial non-compliance” by the FBI and other agencies, including improper querying of U.S. person identifiers. Inspector General reports have confirmed patterns of misuse serious enough to require repeated remedial measures, retraining, and restrictions.

At one point, the scale of improper queries reached into the hundreds of thousands.

Oversight bodies did not dispute the problem. They documented it.

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board confirmed that Section 702 had been used in ways that raised serious constitutional and privacy concerns, particularly when U.S. person data was queried without a warrant. Congress responded, not by ending the authority, but by adjusting procedures and renewing it again.

That is the pattern.

Admitted misuse.

Judicial findings of non-compliance.

Acknowledged constitutional violations.

Renewal anyway.

Each time, Americans are told the issues have been “addressed,” even as new audits and oversight reports continue to be required, because the problems did not disappear. They were managed just enough to justify continuation.

And this data does not exist in isolation.

Information collected under national security authorities does not stay confined to a single system. Intelligence data is shared across agencies and can be used downstream, including in watchlisting systems where individuals may face travel restrictions, monitoring, or enhanced screening without notice, charges, or a meaningful path to challenge.

No warrant.

No explanation.

No redress.

At the same time, the government has publicly acknowledged Havana Syndrome, also referred to as Anomalous Health Incidents, as a real set of neurological injuries with national security implications. Congress went so far as to pass the Havana Syndrome Act, recognizing the seriousness of the harm.

And yet, civilians diagnosed with the same or substantially similar conditions remain largely ignored.

There is no transparent process for civilian acknowledgment. No public explanation for why the statutory definition of harm is applied selectively. No mechanism for review or redress. Harm is recognized, just not universally.

When surveillance authorities expand under secrecy, when oversight bodies document misuse, when courts rule actions unconstitutional, and when harm is acknowledged but selectively addressed, the issue is no longer one of uncertainty.

It is one of accountability.

This is why the timing matters.

As a new NSA Director nominee is vetted by the Senate, questions about surveillance, civil liberties, and oversight are no longer theoretical. The same agency leadership responsible for interpreting and implementing surveillance authorities will operate under whatever Congress chooses to renew.

Leadership confirmation and authority renewal are converging at the same moment.

Congress cannot claim ignorance.

The record shows they have known for years that Section 702 has been used in ways it was never intended to be used. They have known that Americans’ communications were searched without warrants. They have known that compliance failures were not isolated incidents. And they have known that reforms have not resolved the underlying constitutional problem.

And yet, the authority remains.

This time must be different.

Not because of rhetoric, but because the documentation is complete. Because the findings are public. Because the courts have spoken. Because oversight bodies have spoken. Because the pattern is undeniable.

Renewing Section 702 without fundamental change is not a neutral act. It is a choice to accept what has already been found unlawful or non-compliant, and to proceed anyway.

That is why we are calling on Congress to reject the renewal of FISA Section 702.

Not quietly. Not procedurally. But openly, on the record.

The invisible system isn’t invisible anymore.

The jig is up.

#REJECT702

Take Action

If Congress renews FISA Section 702 without fundamental change, it does so knowingly.

We’ve launched a public petition calling on Congress to reject the renewal of Section 702 and publicly account for warrantless searches of Americans, lack of due process, and repeated findings of misuse.

Sign the petition here: https://c.org/BYj6xPZTmf

Luke 12:2-3 (NIV) 🙏🏽