President Bush urged Congress on Wednesday to extend an expiring terrorist surveillance law that modernizes the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, saying new measures supported by Democrats don’t go far enough to protect the country. Speaking on the South Lawn at the same time the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees were debating the legislation, Bush said the bill needs to meet three criteria before he will sign it. They include giving intelligence professionals “the tools and flexibility they need” to protect the country; closing the intelligence gap to make sure protections intended for Americans aren’t extended to terrorists overseas; and liability protection for telecom companies who are facing multibillion dollar lawsuits for supplying the U.S. government with telephone numbers of suspected terrorists…. Ignoring the president’s warning the Judiciary Committee approved the new Democratic legislation, called the RESTORE Act, Wednesday on a party-line 20-14 vote. It did not include liability protections for the telecom companies.
Bush wants Congress to instead extend the Protect America Act, which was passed in August and “allows the government to eavesdrop without a court order on communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even the communications flow through the U.S. communications network–or if an American is on one end of the conversation–so long as that person is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance.” Democrats believe this is a breach of civil liberties, but Republicans believe this law is vital to our nation’s security. Under the current Protect America Act, which expires in February, the government can conduct warrantless surveillance in America and abroad, even without “probable cause.” The Democrats’ RESTORE Act, however, prohibits warrantless surveillance on Americans in the United States, requires probable cause to monitor Americans abroad, and enforces application procedures that Republicans say could hinder the government’s ability to quickly gather intelligence. Of course, as OMB Watch notes,
Many civil liberties organizations are concerned that the RESTORE Act does not have a requirement for individual warrants to monitor the telephone calls or e-mails of U.S. citizens who come into contact with suspected foreign terrorists. Some groups would like this to be amended so individual court orders are required when surveillance targeted at people abroad intrudes on Americans who are communicating with people overseas.
And as Mark Silva writes at The Swamp,
The Democrats’ bill provides only limited judicial oversight. Officials could get permission from the FISA court for as much as one year’s surveillance, for example, of people reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., rather than seeking individualized wiretaps. They could also undertake “emergency surveillance” for up to 45 days.
But other bloggers wonder if that is enough. Bluey at Redstate notes, “The House Judiciary Committee today voted 20-14 for a FISA bill that would take the country backward. Republican attempts to strengthen the bill seem futile. With the American Civil Liberties Union and liberal bloggers demanding a swift reversal from the votes in August, Democrats seem content to oblige.” Bluey also lists other problems with RESTORE:
1) It burdens military intelligence collection on the battlefield with the same FISA regulations that Director of National Intelligence Adm. Mike McConnell said were causing us to miss out on vital information; 2) It contains no provisions for third parties to challenge FISA court orders; and 3) It creates a centralized database that could subject Americans to alarmingly increased risk of privacy violations by requiring the intelligence community report to Congress information on the identities of U.S. citizens disseminated within the community.
Prairie Pundit is outraged that Democrats want to “reform” FISA to prevent expansion of government surveillance, noting, “we are collecting this information to prevent an enemy attack and their should be no expectation of privacy by people planning mass murder of non combatants.” Dennis Lormel at Counterterrorism Blog says,
there are impediments which make protecting us a more difficult task, thereby jeopardizing our safety. Since assuming the position Director of National Security, Mike McConnell has articulated the need for enhanced intelligence collection capabilities. It is critically important that our intelligence agencies be given the tools to maximize the collection of valuable intelligence information. Detractors contend the government has too much authority and is infringing on the privacy rights of our citizenry. What they fail to accept is the government intent is not to spy on the public. The government intent is to collect meaningful intelligence to prevent acts of terrorism. After all there is one certainty, given the opportunity, terrorists will attack us. It’s unfortunate that many detractors show more distain toward the government then they do to terrorists.
Also, a bit of satire at Redstate…the shape of things to come?
