By Raphael Satter
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Biden administration’s nominee to head the National Security Agency (NSA) has said he will defend mass surveillance power that has been used to collect data from strangers and of Americans and which has been the subject of renewed scrutiny by lawmakers.
Efforts to renew the spy power, known as Section 702 of the FISA Act, are meeting resistance from both sides ahead of its expected expiry date at the end of the year. Lt. Gen. Timothy Haugh, Biden’s pick to replace outgoing NSA chief Gen. Paul Nakasone, defended him on Wednesday as a critical authority who allowed the intelligence community to gather information on a slew of threat.
“In my experience, it’s absolutely essential,” he told lawmakers.
The program – which has come under intense scrutiny following revelations from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden a decade ago – is generally presented by its defenders as sweeping away information about non- Americans living outside the United States.
That’s how Haugh described him during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee, saying he wanted to make sure “the American people understand that this is a collection authority against foreigners abroad”.
That’s not the whole story, however.
A significant portion of the data scanned by the NSA’s mass surveillance apparatus belongs to Americans living in the United States. In theory, the use of this data collected without a warrant is subject to certain safeguards. But the recent revelation that the FBI improperly combed through the database more than a quarter of a million times over several years has only heightened concerns among civil liberties advocates and lawmakers about the potential for abuse of section 702.
However, Haugh is unlikely to encounter too much resistance from the Senate Intelligence Committee on the issue.
“We desperately need to get 702 reauthorized,” committee chairman Mark Warner told him as he began his testimony.
(Reporting by Raphael Satter; Jonathan Oatis and Lisa Shumaker)