Bush asks Congress to alter 1978 eavesdropping law
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Bush asks Congress to alter 1978 eavesdropping law*
13 Apr 2007 19:50:51 GMT
Source: Reuters
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON, April 13 (Reuters) - The Bush administration asked Congress
on Friday to expand the number of people it can subject to electronic
surveillance in the United States.
The request was contained in a proposed bill authored by intelligence
and Justice Department officials that also protects companies that
cooperate with spy operations.
Legislation submitted a week ahead of a Senate hearing on government
surveillance practices calls for the 1978 law that governs eavesdropping
operations to be updated to combat the threat from Islamist militants
who use computer and wireless technology that did not exist in the 1970s.
It was not clear what kind of reception the proposal would receive in
Congress, where Democrats took over in January for the first time since
1994.
But the move was likely to reinvigorate a congressional debate over the
effectiveness of the generation-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act. Several efforts to update the law, designed to oversee electronic
eavesdropping against foreign agents operating inside the United States,
failed in Congress last year.
"The Justice Department is selling this new bill as a better way to
protect our privacy and civil liberties. Lawmakers should reject such
false advertising," said Caroline Fredrickson of the American Civil
Liberties Union.
FISA, which requires the government to get court warrants for
surveillance, was at the center of political controversy over President
George W. Bush's domestic spying program, which allowed the National
Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and
e-mails of U.S. citizens without warrants.
The program was suspended for a review by a secret federal court that
grants FISA warrants.
TWO NEW CATEGORIES
Senior administration officials, who spoke to reporters only on
condition of anonymity, said they proposed to add two new categories of
non-U.S. persons to FISA's definition for foreign agents who can be
targeted for surveillance.
Under current law, a U.S. person is either a U.S. citizen or a foreign
national with permanent residence status.
"It adds a new category of individuals to the non-U.S.
person-agent-of-a-foreign-power definition to include people who we
believe have significant foreign intelligence information but where the
relationship between that person and the foreign power is unclear," said
one official.
Foreign powers can include the governments of other countries as well as
militant groups including al Qaeda.
A second new category of foreign agents would be non-U.S. persons
involved in a deliberate attempt to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.
The bill extends the life of court warrants that authorize eavesdropping
on non-U.S. persons from 120 days to one year.
It also shields companies against legal liabilities if they participate
in "lawful" eavesdropping activities.
Major telecommunications companies accused of participating in the NSA
spying program have faced federal lawsuits charging involvement in
illegal espionage.
Another main thrust of the bill is to drop FISA provisions by dropping
references to older technology and refocusing the instead law on
categories of persons who can be targeted.