Senator Ron Wyden is sounding the alarm again about surveillance overreach, and his track record suggests we should pay attention. The Oregon Democrat, known for prescient warnings about NSA activities, says Americans will be "stunned" by what the NSA is doing under Section 702 authority.

Here's why this matters: Wyden has been right before. In 2011, he warned about secret reinterpretations of the PATRIOT Act that would shock Americans if they knew about them. Two years later, Edward Snowden's revelations about bulk metadata collection proved Wyden was trying to warn us. When he uses this language again, it's worth investigating what he's seeing in classified briefings that the rest of us aren't allowed to know.

Section 702 is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act provision that allows surveillance of non-Americans overseas without warrants. The problem - and Wyden has been pointing this out for years - is that when foreigners communicate with Americans, those Americans' communications get swept up too. The NSA calls this 'incidental collection.' Privacy advocates call it warrantless surveillance of Americans.

Wyden stated that "when it is eventually declassified, the American people will be stunned" about hidden Section 702 authorities affecting privacy rights. He's repeatedly requested declassification from multiple administrations; all have refused. That pattern - a senator with security clearance trying to warn the public about classified programs without violating classification laws - is the same one we saw before the Snowden revelations.

What makes this warning more urgent is the lack of oversight. Previous 'reforms' requiring FBI Deputy Director approval for sensitive searches backfired spectacularly. The position was held by Dan Bongino, described as "a longtime conspiracy theorist," followed by Andrew Bailey, characterized as These aren't exactly profiles that inspire confidence in careful protection of civil liberties.