Yacolt resident Thomas Schenk offers his thoughts on a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives regarding re-authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are those of the author alone and do not reflect the editorial position of ClarkCountyToday.com
Among the multitude of work being addressed by the House of Representatives in D.C., is a bill regarding re-authorization of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
![Thomas Schenk](https://www.clarkcountytoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Mug_Clark-County-Today-Thomas-Schenk.jpg)
At this time it is on hold … and that’s a good thing.
Abuses by FBI agents and their upper management in submitting false, incomplete and unverified information in sworn affidavits supporting FISA surveillance requests monitoring innocent Americans require another Church Commission to once and for all preclude the ability of out-of-control government entities from violating citizen’s civil rights.
One has to wonder why the FISA Court judges in D.C. didn’t take steps to hold some of these individuals in contempt of court … it’s only been several years or so since being exposed!
Since the truth of these unwarranted FISA applications and the supporting questionable affidavits were revealed, as far as I am aware, not one individual has been reprimanded or held accountable by the FISA Court for these abuses. Was the “fix” in?
There are, I believe, several civil lawsuits in the pipeline brought by individuals whose civil rights were violated by the Federal government. Civil lawsuits are not swift justice for those whose lives were impacted by the government’s unlawful practices and the lengthy time achieving a resolution in those cases is certainly no deterrent in precluding similar situations in the future.
Adding to this “fog” of what actually happened is the pseudo journalists who never met a government violation they couldn’t justify.
Subsequently, Americans are left in limbo while the government hides, when crimes are committed, the violations which take real journalists years to uncover, and when the violations are finally exposed it is really a day late and a dollar short.
Thomas Schenk
Yacolt
Also read:
- Letter: For the public record and the Comprehensive PlanIn a July 12 letter to the Clark County Council, Clark County Citizens United President Susan Rasmussen shares that primary stakeholders were ignored in the Wetland and Habitat Ordinance Conservation Covenant.
- Opinion: Supreme Court gives Vancouver a new tool to use in its homelessness efforts, but will the city use it?Most Vancouver residents do not want homelessness to be criminalized but they do want a response when some in the homeless community commit crimes, and a new ruling by the United States Supreme court is a tool the city could use to help neighborhoods.
- Opinion: Has transit entered the “death spiral?”Transit ridership dropped sharply with the onset of the COVID pandemic in 2020. The slow rebound in the years that followed has prompted discussion, sometimes in hushed tones, as to whether transit had entered a “death spiral.”
- POLL: Should the city of Vancouver do more to protect citizens who have been victims of harassment, or worse, from those living homeless on the streets?Should the city of Vancouver do more to protect citizens who have been victims of harassment, or worse, from those living homeless on the streets?
- Opinion: How bad is freeway speeding?Target Zero Manager Doug Dahl answers a question about the commonplace of freeway speeding in Washington state.