Cato Event Podcast

Al Qaeda’s attacks on the United States plunged America into multiple military campaigns abroad in pursuit of the attackers. It also ushered in new surveillance programs before any investigations into the causes of the 9/11 intelligence failure had even begun. The first new, secret mass electronic surveillance program authorized by then president George W. Bush, Stellar Wind, was initiated just days after the attacks and with no judicial notification, much less review, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). In a parallel public track, the Bush administration pushed for and received even more sweeping surveillance authorities via the congressionally approved Patriot Act. By the end of the Bush presidency, the FBI had been granted vast new domestic surveillance powers, gaining authority to open investigations on individuals or groups without needing a criminal basis to do so.The Obama era was marked not by reevaluations of these programs but instead by their continuity and po