[Cboldt]

-- FISA abuse is a _big_ deal ... --

It's the top of the iceberg. Read Collyer's April 2017 Opinion and Order. The government undetakes RAMPANT warrantless snooping -- which is coincidentally constitiutional when performed to gather foreign intelligence.

The FISA warrant stack is there to "prove" a falsehood - that the government uses utmost care and the highest standards before snooping.

I see a real practical barrier to getting a "lied to the FISA court" conviction. I bet the application is literally true. Misleading, but literally true.

[cgbg]

The FISA warrant stack is there to "prove" a falsehood - that the government uses utmost care and the highest standards before snooping.

Agreed.

One of the Snowden (and other whistleblower) points is that it is legal for us to snoop on foreign countries and legal (from their point of view) for them to snoop on Americans. Those intelligence agencies can then swap data at will and claim they did not snoop on _their_ citizens.