Trump signs renewal of NSA's surveillance program

Washington DC [United States] January 20 (ANI): United States President Donald Trump has signed a bill into a law renewing the National Security Agency's (NSA) warrantless internet surveillance program for another six years.

"Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection," Trump wrote, in a Twitter post, "This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!"

Just signed 702 Bill to reauthorize foreign intelligence collection. This is NOT the same FISA law that was so wrongly abused during the election. I will always do the right thing for our country and put the safety of the American people first!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 19, 2018

Several media reports state that the legislation imposes only modest tweaks to the sweeping warrantless programs that intercept the digital traffic of foreign targets but also incidentally hover up the personal information on an unknown number of Americans.

The intelligence community says the program is a critical tool in identifying and disrupting terror plots.

Some Republicans have claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) inappropriately obtained a politically motivated Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to spy on Trump during the transition, the Hill reported.

The Senate approved the bill on Thursday, one week after it sailed through the House of Representatives.

Section 702 of the FISA, "allows the government to obtain the communications of foreigners outside the US, including foreign terrorist threats."

The Act was actually passed in 1978, but first made headlines in 2005 during the administration of former President George W Bush under whose administration this particular section was put into place due to the security concerns after the September 11th attacks, the report said. (ANI)