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Spatial co-ordinations are initially random, and will automatically re-arrange to minimize complexity based on distance between relationships. Mouse down and drag to pan. Right click on the strategic diagram toggles between motion and stationary. Hover over abstract node (orange) to view abstractions. Hover over leaf node to view corresponding narrative. Left click on the leaf node expands the narrative to view full text.

Narrative Analysis - Report

Key Focus

The disclosure helps clarify the intent behind an amendment that has alarmed privacy advocates as Senate leaders try to swiftly pass the bill, which would add two more years to a wiretapping law known as Section 702. The provision would add to the types of service providers that could be compelled to participate in the program, but it is written in enigmatic terms that make it hard to understand what it is supposed to permit ...

Those include restricting directives toward entities that primarily serve as dwellings, community facilities, food service establishments or other public accommodations.. . The amendment passed, 236 to 186.. . Still, as the bill heads to the Senate, privacy advocates have warned that the wording remains unacceptably broad. ...

Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government's annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the administration sends directives to "electronic communications service providers" that require them to participate. If any such entity balks, the court decides whether it must cooperate ...

The surveillance court in 2022, and an appeals court panel a year later, sided with an unidentified company that had objected to being compelled to participate in the program because it believed one of its services did not fit the necessary criteria. ...

No momentum supporting factor found

Challenge supporting factors

(service,senate)

(service,providers)

(service,wiretapping)

(court,government,security)

(court,government,presiding)

(court,security,presiding)

(court,government,policy)

(court,security,policy)

(government,policy)

(court,government,judge_rudolph_contreras)

(court,security,judge_rudolph_contreras)

Work-in-progress supporting factors

(service,court)

(communications,security)

(communications,court)

(service,senate)

(communications,providers)

(service,providers)

(service,communications)

(service,sided)

(service,security)

(service,leaders)

(court,government,security)

(government,security)

(court,security,service)

(government,service)

(communications,technology)

Time Period	Challenge	Momentum	WIP
Report	59.68	0.00	40.33

High Level Abstraction (HLA) combined

High Level Abstraction (HLA)	Report
(1) (service,court)	100.00
(2) (service,senate)	98.39
(3) (service,providers)	95.98
(4) (court,government,security)	81.12
(5) (communications,security)	54.22
(6) (communications,court)	51.00
(7) (communications,providers)	48.59
(8) (service,communications)	47.39
(9) (service,wiretapping)	46.99
(10) (service,spies)	46.59
(11) (service,sided)	46.18
(12) (service,services)	45.78
(13) (service,security)	44.98
(14) (service,plumbers)	44.58
(15) (service,leaders)	44.18
(16) (service,janitors)	43.78
(17) (government,security)	38.55
(18) (court,government,presiding)	36.95
(19) (government,policy)	36.14
(20) (court,security,presiding)	35.74
(21) (court,government,policy)	34.54
(22) (court,security,policy)	32.93
(23) (court,government,judge_rudolph_contreras)	31.73
(24) (court,security,judge_rudolph_contreras)	30.12
(25) (court,government,judge)	29.72
(26) (court,security,judge)	27.71
(27) (court,government,entity)	27.31
(28) (court,government,declassified)	26.91
(29) (court,government,congress)	26.10
(30) (court,security,congress)	22.49
(31) (court,security,technical)	20.88
(32) (court,technical)	20.48
(33) (court,security,service)	20.08
(34) (government,service)	19.28
(35) (communications,technology)	18.88
(36) (court,risk)	18.47
(37) (court,security,risk)	17.27
(38) (court,providers)	16.87
(39) (court,security,providers)	15.66
(40) (communications,intelligence)	15.66
(41) (court,security,communications)	14.86
(42) (communications,government)	14.06
(43) (court,congress)	13.65
(44) (court,warrantless)	12.45
(45) (communications,foreigners)	12.45
(46) (court,sided)	12.05
(47) (court,services)	11.65
(48) (government,services)	11.24
(49) (court,presiding)	10.84
(50) (court,president_george)	10.04
(51) (government,spies)	8.43
(52) (communications,olsen)	8.43
(53) (communications,warning)	5.62
(54) (communications,ron_wyden)	5.22
(55) (government,americans)	5.22
(56) (communications,privacy-minded)	4.82
(57) (government,congress)	3.21
(58) (government,vitka)	2.01
(59) (government,users)	1.61
(60) (government,threat)	1.20
(61) (government,sided)	0.80

Supporting narratives:

Please refer to knowledge diagram for a complete set of supporting narratives.

challenge - Back to HLA

Those include restricting directives toward entities that primarily serve as dwellings, community facilities, food service establishments or other public accommodations.. . The amendment passed, 236 to 186.. . Still, as the bill heads to the Senate, privacy advocates have warned that the wording remains unacceptably broad. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,senate)

challenge - Back to HLA

The disclosure helps clarify the intent behind an amendment that has alarmed privacy advocates as Senate leaders try to swiftly pass the bill, which would add two more years to a wiretapping law known as Section 702. The provision would add to the types of service providers that could be compelled to participate in the program, but it is written in enigmatic terms that make it hard to understand what it is supposed to permit ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,providers)
(service,wiretapping)

challenge - Back to HLA

Privacy advocates, for their part, have portrayed the amendment as dangerous, so broadly worded that it could be used to draft ordinary service people - like cable installers, janitors or plumbers who can gain physical access to office computer equipment - to act as spies. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,spies)
(service,plumbers)
(service,janitors)
(government,service)

challenge - Back to HLA

The surveillance court in 2022, and an appeals court panel a year later, sided with an unidentified company that had objected to being compelled to participate in the program because it believed one of its services did not fit the necessary criteria.. . The details were redacted. But according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, the judges found that a data center service does not fit the legal definition of an "electronic communications service provider" because it does not itself give its users the ability to send or receive electronic messages ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,services)

challenge - Back to HLA

"If the government believes that the scope of Section 702 directives should be broadened as a matter of national security policy, its recourse is with Congress," wrote Judge Rudolph Contreras, then the presiding judge of the surveillance court ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,government,policy)
(court,government,security)
(court,security,policy)
(government,policy)
Inferred entity relationships (7)
(court,government,presiding) [inferred]
(court,government,judge_rudolph_contreras) [inferred]
(court,government,policy) [inferred]
(government,security) [inferred]
(court,government,judge) [inferred]
(government,policy) [inferred]
(court,government,security) [inferred]

challenge - Back to HLA

"If the government believes that the scope of Section 702 directives should be broadened as a matter of national security policy, its recourse is with Congress," wrote Judge Rudolph Contreras, then the presiding judge of the surveillance court. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,government,presiding)
(court,security,judge_rudolph_contreras)
(court,security,judge)
(court,government,judge)
(court,government,congress)
(court,security,congress)
(court,government,judge_rudolph_contreras)
(court,security,presiding)
Inferred entity relationships (11)
(court,government,judge_rudolph_contreras) [inferred]
(court,security,technical) [inferred]
(congress,court) [inferred]
(court,government,presiding) [inferred]
(court,security,service) [inferred]
(court,government,policy) [inferred]
(congress,court,security) [inferred]
(congress,court,government) [inferred]
(court,government,judge) [inferred]
(court,government,security) [inferred]
(court,presiding) [inferred]

challenge - Back to HLA

If any such entity balks, the court decides whether it must cooperate.. . Last August, the government partly declassified court rulings centered on the dispute ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,government,entity)

challenge - Back to HLA

If any such entity balks, the court decides whether it must cooperate.. . Last August, the government partly declassified court rulings centered on the dispute. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,government,declassified)

challenge - Back to HLA

Even as national security officials described the provision as a narrow fix to a technical issue, they have declined to explain a classified court ruling from 2022 to which the provision is a response, citing the risk of tipping off foreign adversaries ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,security,technical)
(court,technical)
Inferred entity relationships (1)
(court,security,service) [inferred]

challenge - Back to HLA

Even as national security officials described the provision as a narrow fix to a technical issue, they have declined to explain a classified court ruling from 2022 to which the provision is a response, citing the risk of tipping off foreign adversaries. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,risk)
(court,security,risk)
Inferred entity relationships (2)
(court,risk) [inferred]
(court,risk,security) [inferred]

challenge - Back to HLA

"If the government believes that the scope of Section 702 directives should be broadened as a matter of national security policy, its recourse is with Congress," wrote Judge Rudolph Contreras, then the presiding judge of the surveillance court.. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,congress)
Inferred entity relationships (2)
(congress,court,security) [inferred]
(congress,court,government) [inferred]

challenge - Back to HLA

"If the government believes that the scope of Section 702 directives should be broadened as a matter of national security policy, its recourse is with Congress," wrote Judge Rudolph Contreras, then the presiding judge of the surveillance court.. . And the appellate panel noted that the definition invoked in Section 702 traces back to a law Congress wrote in 1986, meaning that it was "premised on internet architecture now almost 40 years old." They added, "Any unintended gap in coverage revealed by our interpretation is, of course, open to reconsideration by the branches of government whose competence and constitutional authority extend to statutory revision." ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,presiding)
Inferred entity relationships (1)
(court,presiding,security) [inferred]

challenge - Back to HLA

Enacted in 2008, it legalized a form of the warrantless surveillance program President George W. Bush began after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.. . Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government's annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the administration sends directives to "electronic communications service providers" that require them to participate ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,president_george)

challenge - Back to HLA

In recent days, for example, the office of a leading privacy-minded senator, Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, has circulated a warning that the provision could be used to conscript someone with access to a journalist's laptop to extract communications between that journalist and a hypothetical foreign source who was targeted for intelligence. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,intelligence)

challenge - Back to HLA

Under Section 702, the government may collect, without a warrant and from U.S. companies like Google and AT&T, the communications of foreigners abroad who have been targeted for intelligence or counterterrorism purposes - even when they are communicating with Americans ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,foreigners)
(communications,government)

challenge - Back to HLA

In recent days, for example, the office of a leading privacy-minded senator, Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, has circulated a warning that the provision could be used to conscript someone with access to a journalist's laptop to extract communications between that journalist and a hypothetical foreign source who was targeted for intelligence ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,warning)
(communications,ron_wyden)
(communications,privacy-minded)

challenge - Back to HLA

Privacy advocates, for their part, have portrayed the amendment as dangerous, so broadly worded that it could be used to draft ordinary service people - like cable installers, janitors or plumbers who can gain physical access to office computer equipment - to act as spies.. . Under Section 702, the government may collect, without a warrant and from U.S. companies like Google and AT&T, the communications of foreigners abroad who have been targeted for intelligence or counterterrorism purposes - even when they are communicating with Americans ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,spies)

challenge - Back to HLA

Unredacted portions in both rulings suggested that Congress update the definition if the interpretation was a problem. "If the government believes that the scope of Section 702 directives should be broadened as a matter of national security policy, its recourse is with Congress," wrote Judge Rudolph Contreras, then the presiding judge of the surveillance court ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,congress)

challenge - Back to HLA

Last August, the government partly declassified court rulings centered on the dispute. The surveillance court in 2022, and an appeals court panel a year later, sided with an unidentified company that had objected to being compelled to participate in the program because it believed one of its services did not fit the necessary criteria ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,sided)

WIP - Back to HLA

Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government's annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the administration sends directives to "electronic communications service providers" that require them to participate ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,security)
(communications,court)
(communications,government)
(service,court)
(communications,security)
Inferred entity relationships (1)
(communications,court,security) [inferred]

WIP - Back to HLA

The surveillance court in 2022, and an appeals court panel a year later, sided with an unidentified company that had objected to being compelled to participate in the program because it believed one of its services did not fit the necessary criteria. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,services)
(service,court)
(court,services)
(service,sided)

WIP - Back to HLA

The disclosure helps clarify the intent behind an amendment that has alarmed privacy advocates as Senate leaders try to swiftly pass the bill, which would add two more years to a wiretapping law known as Section 702 ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,senate)
(service,leaders)

WIP - Back to HLA

Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government's annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the administration sends directives to "electronic communications service providers" that require them to participate. If any such entity balks, the court decides whether it must cooperate ...
High Level Abstractions:

(service,providers)
(communications,providers)
(service,communications)

WIP - Back to HLA

11, 2001.. . Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government's annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the administration sends directives to "electronic communications service providers" that require them to participate ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,security)
(court,government,security)
Inferred entity relationships (5)
(court,government,presiding) [inferred]
(court,government,judge_rudolph_contreras) [inferred]
(court,government,policy) [inferred]
(government,security) [inferred]
(court,government,judge) [inferred]

WIP - Back to HLA

Specifically, after the court that oversees national security surveillance approves the government's annual requests seeking to renew the program and setting rules for it, the administration sends directives to "electronic communications service providers" that require them to participate. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,security,service)
(court,security,providers)
(court,security,communications)
(government,service)
(court,providers)
Inferred entity relationships (6)
(court,security,service) [inferred]
(court,providers) [inferred]
(court,security,technical) [inferred]
(security,service) [inferred]
(court,providers,security) [inferred]
(communications,court) [inferred]

WIP - Back to HLA

Enacted in 2008, it legalized a form of the warrantless surveillance program President George W. Bush began after the terrorist attacks of Sept ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,warrantless)

WIP - Back to HLA

The surveillance court in 2022, and an appeals court panel a year later, sided with an unidentified company that had objected to being compelled to participate in the program because it believed one of its services did not fit the necessary criteria ...
High Level Abstractions:

(court,sided)

WIP - Back to HLA

Olsen, the head of the Justice Department's national security division, said the push for the provision was being driven by a way that communications technology had evolved since Congress wrote Section 702 in 2008. But he declined to address whether the rise of data centers was the specific catalyst ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,technology)

WIP - Back to HLA

"As technology changes, we have to go back to the fundamental purpose of 702, which is about foreign adversaries who are using U.S ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,technology)

WIP - Back to HLA

Olsen, the head of the Justice Department's national security division, said the push for the provision was being driven by a way that communications technology had evolved since Congress wrote Section 702 in 2008 ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,security)

WIP - Back to HLA

"As technology changes, we have to go back to the fundamental purpose of 702, which is about foreign adversaries who are using U.S. infrastructure.". . Mr. Olsen also stressed that the law only permits targeting the communications of foreigners abroad and that its use is subject to oversight by all three branches ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,olsen)

WIP - Back to HLA

companies like Google and AT&T, the communications of foreigners abroad who have been targeted for intelligence or counterterrorism purposes - even when they are communicating with Americans. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,intelligence)
(government,americans)

WIP - Back to HLA

infrastructure.". . Mr. Olsen also stressed that the law only permits targeting the communications of foreigners abroad and that its use is subject to oversight by all three branches. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(communications,foreigners)

WIP - Back to HLA

Sean Vitka, policy director for the civil liberties group Demand Progress, said that even if the Biden administration did not intend to use the provision so expansively, there was no guarantee that a future administration would agree.. . "This change can be used to turn innumerable scores of Americans into secret government spies, posing a severe threat to hundreds of thousands of big and small businesses and their many millions of customers, clients and users," he said ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,spies)
(government,americans)

WIP - Back to HLA

Sean Vitka, policy director for the civil liberties group Demand Progress, said that even if the Biden administration did not intend to use the provision so expansively, there was no guarantee that a future administration would agree. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,vitka)
(government,policy)

WIP - Back to HLA

"This change can be used to turn innumerable scores of Americans into secret government spies, posing a severe threat to hundreds of thousands of big and small businesses and their many millions of customers, clients and users," he said. ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,users)

WIP - Back to HLA

"This change can be used to turn innumerable scores of Americans into secret government spies, posing a severe threat to hundreds of thousands of big and small businesses and their many millions of customers, clients and users," he said ...
High Level Abstractions:

(government,threat)

Semantics Relevance

Secret Rift Over Data Center Fueled Push to Expand Reach of Surveillance Program