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FOR YOUR EYES ONLYMichael Webster Business Consultant (949) 494-7121 (949) 297-8648 E-mail mvwsr@aol.com www.michaelwebster.net 301 Forest Ave., 2nd Fl., Laguna Beach, California 92651
The following report is excerpted from the premium online newsletter “For Your Eyes Only” published by the founder of the Journal Family of publications. Subscriptions are $99 per year. Send check, money order or credit card information to: Michael Webster “For Your Eyes Only”301 Forest Ave, Laguna Beach, CA 92653. Be sure and include your e-mail address.
By Michael Webster
The Democratic-controlled House has approved and sent to President Bush for his signature the new legislation written by his intelligence advisers to enhance their ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners without a court order. The 227 to 183 House vote was the result of a vigorous campaign by the White House to alter the nation's wiretap law. The bill will expand the government's powers to eavesdrop, without warrants, on Americans.
The bill also updates the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as
FISA. It will allow the government to
intercept, without warrants, communications
between any U.S. resident and a foreign
party only suspected of involvement in
"foreign intelligence" matters. It drops
existing language requiring that the
foreigner be suspected more specifically of
connections to terrorist groups such as
al-Qaida.
The bill also would clarify that the government can intercept foreigner-to-foreigner communications that pass through U.S. lines or switches. The administration apparently leaned on Democrats' fears of being looked at as weak on terrorism and congress's desire to vote on the measure before the August recess. Recently the Senate passed similar legislation only after House Democrats miserably failed to get the votes needed to pass a slim revision of the statute named the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This statute was enacted after investigations reveled the many CIA abuses during the 1970s. The law also required judicial oversight for most federal wiretapping cases conducted in the United States. Many concerned have bitterly complained that the Bush administration's revisions of the law will breach existing U S citizen constitutional rights against government intrusion. The Bush administration and the Republican congressional leadership claimed that a failure now to approve what intelligence officials are seeking would likely expose America to a much greater risk of terrorist attacks. Almost all Democrats facing reelection next year in conservative districts pushed the bill though to a quick approval, using the recent intelligence reports about threatening new al-Qaeda activity in Pakistan as the reason. Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) disclosed a secret court ruling earlier this year that complicated the wiretapping matter. But has refused to elaborate on details claiming it as a national security issue. This un constructional bill gives the National Security Agency (NSA) the authority to wiretap communications in the future without a warrant. It also allows the interception and recording of electronic communications by law enforcement by just claiming they believe said communications to be outside the United States all without a court's order or oversight. White House spokesman Tony Fratto claimed that the bill is not meant to increase eavesdropping on Americans or meant to affect in any way the legitimate privacy rights of Americans. But information related to American communications with foreigners who are the targets of a U.S. terrorism investigation could be monitored. The Bush administration says the bill’s sole purpose is to bring the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 into line with advances in technology, and by trying to restore the government's power to gather information without a warrant on foreign intelligence targets located overseas. Some concerned civil liberty legal scholars and other privacy advocates with a majority of Democrats said the bill could allow the monitoring of virtually any calls, e-mails or other communications going overseas that originate in the United States, without a court order, if the government deems the recipient to be the target of a U.S. probe. The bill would undermine the Fourth Amendment. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said lawmakers were being "stampeded by fear mongering and deception" into voting for the bill. Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) warned that the bill would lead to "potential unprecedented abuse of innocent Americans' privacy." Administration officials argued that the distinctions in the present law -- between calls inside and outside the country -- are outmoded in an age of cell phones that work on multiple continents. What intelligence officials want according to a un-named White House source said what we need is the right to surveil a target wherever the call [or other communication involving that target] comes from," and that the new legislation would provide that. In place of a court's approval -- which intelligence officials worried might come too slowly -- the NSA would institute a system of internal bureaucratic controls. A senior intelligence official said that in cases in which an overseas target is communicating with people in the United States not relevant to an investigation, their names are "minimized, or stripped from the transcript, before it is disseminated. You won't see data mining in there, the official said. You won't see vast drift net surveillance of Americans. Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, said that the Democrats would introduce legislation on surveillance in the fall and would conduct oversight of the administration's surveillance program. A narrower Democratic alternative, which Democrats said they crafted partly in response to McConnell's concerns, won majority support but nonetheless failed because it did not collect the necessary two-thirds vote Friday night in the House. It failed after an emotional debate in which Republicans charged Democrats with being soft on terrorism and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused Republicans of not caring "about the truth." Under the administration's version of the bill, the director of national intelligence and the attorney general can authorize the surveillance of all communications involving foreign targets. Oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, composed of federal judges whose deliberations are secret, would be limited to examining whether the government's guidelines for targeting overseas suspects are appropriate. The court would not authorize the surveillance. The bill's six-month sunset clause did not assuage some critics. I'm not comfortable suspending the constitution even temporarily," said Rep. Rush D. Holt (D-N.J.), a member of the House intelligence committee. "The countries we detest around the world are the ones that spy on their own people. Usually they say they do it for the sake of public safety and security." |