The Senate easily passed a measure Thursday expanding a powerful surveillance law, used in spy and terrorism investigations, to allow U.S. agents to wiretap lone foreigners who can’t be linked to a terror organization or government. Currently, U.S. law enforcement officers can get warrants authorizing intelligence-gathering wiretaps from a secret court, but only if they can establish a reasonable belief the target is an “agent of a foreign power” or group. The bill, which passed 90 to 4, would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to remove that requirement. As used in the act, the term “agent of a foreign power” includes those controlled by governments, political organizations or terrorist groups. But lawmakers feared that this requirement could hinder the FBI when its investigators can’t make such a link to a known terror organization or a foreign government. Full Story
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