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Surveillance of Americans Under Wraps
The American Civil Liberties Union is urging Congress to vote “no” on any proposal offered today to allow an expansion of electronic surveillance without court oversight.
Michelle Richardson, a lobbyist with the civil liberties group, said lawmakers are largely in the dark about what both the Republican and Democratic proposals to overhaul the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
“No one knows what is in either proposal,” Richardson said. “They are asking members to vote on something they haven’t seen or discussed. I thought the Democrats were supposed to be about open government, and here they are trying to ram an anti-terrorism bill that no one has really seen in the dark of night.”
The ACLU wants Congress to slow down.
“Wiretapping on American soil should not be a last-minute proposal approved in crisis mode because lawmakers are scared to death by the administration’s assertion that a terror threat is looming,” Richardson said.
But a top aide to Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urges the ACLU to slow down and read the bill.
“Nobody is hiding anything here,” the Republican aide said. “The bill we filed can easily be found on Thomas.gov at here You can’t get much more transparent than that.”
The Republican measure “does not allow them to willy nilly listen to people in the United States,” the Republican aide said. “Unless the suspect is making some threat or order (to commit a terrorist act), they have to drop the call. If they person is in the United States, they have to get a warrant to go after them.”
The few details that have leaked out about the Republican proposal: warrantless surveillance would be overseen by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and John McConnell, the director of national intelligence.
The few details that have leaked out about the Democratic proposal: expanded surveillance of terrorists to be checked annually by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
The court has approved nearly every surveillance request made by law enforcement agencies, prompting some to question why the administration needs this expanded new power.
Here’s what McConnell has to say about why new powers are needed:
“We must urgently close the gap in our current ability to effectively collect foreign intelligence,” McConnell said Thursday night in a statement. The current Foreign Intelligence law was approved in 1978 and is no longer effective, he said.
“The intelligence community should not be required to obtain court orders to effectively collect foreign intelligence from foreign targets located overseas,” McConnell said.
“Second, those who assist the Government in protecting us from harm must be protected from liability,” said McConnell, referring to the companies that have helped the administration with its secret program until the program was disclosed in December 2005.
The intelligence community should not be restricted to effective collection of only certain categories of foreign intelligence when the targets are located overseas, McConnell said.
“The bill must not require court approval before urgently needed intelligence collection can begin against a foreign target located overseas,” McConnell said. “The delays of a court process that requires judicial determinations in advance to gather vital intelligence from foreign targets overseas can in some cases prevent the rapid gathering of intelligence necessary to provide warning of threats to the country. This process would also require in practice that we continue to divert scarce intelligence experts to compiling these court submissions. Similarly, critical intelligence gathering on foreign targets should not be halted while court review is pending.”
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