Tucker Carlson on fisa: what the evidence says · JRE #2138
SUBJECT: FISA
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
We've had the FISA, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, since, I think, 1977, so it predates. 911. Did it stop 911? Oh, I don't think it did.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
FISA was enacted in 1978, not 1977 as Carlson states, though his broader point that it predates the September 11, 2001 attacks is correct. FISA did not prevent 9/11, but the 9/11 Commission's investigation attributed pre-attack intelligence failures primarily to a bureaucratic wall restricting information-sharing between intelligence and criminal investigators, largely the product of overly cautious internal policy interpretations rather than a FISA legal requirement itself, and Congress later loosened those restrictions via the USA PATRIOT Act. The core claim (FISA predates 9/11 and did not stop it) is accurate; the implied inference that this shows surveillance powers provide no security benefit omits this more specific, documented cause of the pre-9/11 failure.