A warrantless wiretap law is about to expire — but surveillance networks aren’t actually ‘going dark’
A warrantless wiretap law is about to expire — but surveillance networks aren’t actually ‘going dark’
一项无证监听法律即将到期——但监控网络实际上并不会“陷入黑暗”
Congress failed to renew Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but dire warnings are misleading. 国会未能延长《外国情报监视法》（FISA）第702条款，但那些危言耸听的警告具有误导性。
Congress has failed to pass a three-week extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), with the House voting 218-198 against reauthorizing the controversial warrantless wiretapping authority through July 2nd. After a short-term extension earlier this year, the spying program now appears set to lapse for at least a week. This is the nightmare scenario FISA’s proponents have been warning about — but it doesn’t actually mean the US has lost its surveillance capabilities. 国会未能通过《外国情报监视法》（FISA）第702条款的为期三周的延期法案，众议院以218票对198票否决了将这一备受争议的无证监听授权延长至7月2日的提议。在今年早些时候进行了一次短期延期后，该间谍项目目前看来将至少中断一周。这正是FISA支持者们一直警告的“噩梦场景”，但这并不意味着美国真的失去了监控能力。
Proponents of a clean extension claim a lapse will hinder intelligence agencies’ efforts to thwart potential terrorist attacks, with surveillance networks “going dark.” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) stressed the importance of reauthorizing Section 702 ahead of the World Cup. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has said even a brief lapse would be disastrous. “Democrats in the Senate are playing political games right now with the lives of Americans,” he told reporters Wednesday. “It’s a very dangerous situation.” 支持“无附加条件延期”的人士声称，法案失效将阻碍情报机构阻止潜在恐怖袭击的努力，导致监控网络“陷入黑暗”。参议员汤姆·科顿（共和党，阿肯色州）强调了在世界杯前重新授权第702条款的重要性。众议院议长迈克·约翰逊（共和党，路易斯安那州）表示，即使是短暂的中断也将是灾难性的。他在周三对记者说：“参议院的民主党人现在正拿美国人的生命玩弄政治游戏。这是一个非常危险的局面。”
In March, the FISA court recertified surveillance under Section 702 until 2027. The Brennan Center for Justice notes that a lapse won’t allow telecom companies to flout requests to hand over communications information to the NSA and other spy agencies. In 2008, after Yahoo failed to comply with a Section 702 request during a lapse, the FISA court ruled that the directives issued under Section 702 are effective while the certification is in place — even in the event of a lapse. 今年3月，FISA法院重新认证了第702条款下的监控授权，有效期至2027年。布伦南司法中心指出，法案失效并不会让电信公司有理由无视向国家安全局（NSA）及其他间谍机构移交通信信息的请求。2008年，在雅虎于法案失效期间未能遵守第702条款的请求后，FISA法院裁定，只要认证仍然有效，根据第702条款发布的指令就是有效的——即使在法案失效的情况下也是如此。
“The phrase ‘going dark’ is significantly misleading,” Andrea Sawka Fiegl, the senior policy director for media and technology at Common Cause, said on a Tuesday press call. Fiegl added that companies don’t choose whether they participate in surveillance under Section 702. If they don’t comply after being served with a directive, they face fines starting at $250,000 a day. “‘陷入黑暗’这个说法具有极大的误导性，”Common Cause媒体与技术高级政策总监安德里亚·萨夫卡·菲格尔（Andrea Sawka Fiegl）在周二的媒体电话会议上表示。菲格尔补充说，企业没有选择权决定是否参与第702条款下的监控。如果他们在收到指令后不予配合，将面临每天至少25万美元的罚款。
“The ‘going dark’ framing is basically a pressure tactic designed to strip Congress of its leverage to negotiate reforms by creating this false binary,” Fiegl said. “There is ample time for Congress to consider and pass reforms.” “‘陷入黑暗’的说法本质上是一种施压策略，旨在通过制造这种虚假的二元对立，剥夺国会协商改革的筹码，”菲格尔说。“国会有充足的时间来审议并通过改革方案。”
Among those reforms are a warrant requirement for queries involving US persons, including so-called “backdoor searches” in which intelligence agencies identify a foreign target with ties to a US person, and then search that person’s communications, thus granting them access to their desired US target. Reformers also want to prohibit intelligence agencies from buying Americans’ data from private brokers to get around warrant requirements. 这些改革方案包括：要求对涉及美国人的查询必须获得搜查令，其中包括所谓的“后门搜索”——即情报机构锁定一名与美国人有联系的外国目标，然后搜索该美国人的通信记录，从而间接获取他们想要的美国目标信息。改革派还希望禁止情报机构从私人数据经纪人处购买美国人的数据，以规避搜查令的要求。
“Every day that Section 702 is in effect without reforms is a day that Americans’ rights are under threat,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said in a statement Wednesday night, after Senate Republicans blocked his request for a five-week extension of Section 702 with new transparency requirements. “If there is going to be an extension of these authorities, there needs to be some guardrails or at least some transparency that would allow Congress and the American people to understand the abuses that have taken place and the need for reforms.” “第702条款在没有改革的情况下每生效一天，美国人的权利就多受一天威胁，”参议员罗恩·怀登（民主党，俄勒冈州）在周三晚间的一份声明中表示。此前，参议院共和党人阻止了他提出的将第702条款延长五周并附加新透明度要求的请求。“如果要延长这些授权，就必须设立一些护栏，或者至少提供一些透明度，让国会和美国人民能够了解已经发生的滥用行为以及进行改革的必要性。”
Though President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in both chambers have called for a clean reauthorization of Section 702, there’s bipartisan appetite for reform — and a handful of Republican holdouts stand in the way of a clean reauthorization. Most Democrats — even some who have supported reauthorization in the past — have objected to a clean extension due to Trump’s appointment of Bill Pulte as acting director of national intelligence. 尽管唐纳德·特朗普总统和两院的共和党领袖都呼吁对第702条款进行“无附加条件”的重新授权，但两党内部都有改革的意愿，而少数共和党人的抵制阻碍了这一进程。大多数民主党人——甚至包括一些过去支持重新授权的人——也反对无条件延期，原因在于特朗普任命了比尔·普尔特（Bill Pulte）担任国家情报代理总监。