Bush wants FISA controls relaxed, updated for new technology
As laid out in a May column in the Washington Post, the Bush Administration wants to update FISA -- the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- so that it covers modern technology, eWeek notes.
Yes, this is the same FISA law that the Administration flaunted with the NSA warrantless spying program. But even though the White House casts doubt on the notion that the executive branch can be constrained by FISA, it wants to be sure that it can do surveillance on the latest technology.
Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, wrote in the Post:
Technology and threats have changed, but the law remains essentially the same. If we are to improve our ability to protect the country by gathering foreign intelligence, this law must be updated to reflect changes in technology and the ways our adversaries communicate with one another.Many Americans would be surprised at just what the current law requires. To state the facts plainly: In a significant number of cases, our intelligence agencies must obtain a court order to monitor the communications of foreigners suspected of terrorist activity who are physically located in foreign countries. We are in this situation because the law simply has not kept pace with technology.
But it's not clear exactly how the Administration proposes updating the law. McConnell's language suggests that the White House is asking not just for more technologies to be encompassed by FISA but also that fewer restrictions be imposed on law enforcement.
In light of the barage of civil liberties abuses, domestic spying and claims that judicial and legislative oversight illegally impinge on executive powers, Congress is taking a dim view of FISA overhaul and other terrorism-justified proposals.
A bipartisan group of senators that includes Charles Grassley (R-IA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has blocked the FISA overhaul bill from proceeding, instead introducing an oversight bill to make sure that the Administration's secret FISA court faces at least basic public accounting, including coughing up information on the number of United States citizens who've been spied on under FISA and the number of times that FISA information has been used for law enforcement purposes.
Leahy is also taking aim at a Justice Dept. report that revealed FBI data-mining practices. That program comes close to violating the decades-old ban on the FBI doing spying operations. Under the Patriot Act, the Attorney General is to report to Congress on any DOJ programs connected with data-mining. The report arrived four months late and short on specifics, Leahy charges.
"This report raises more questions than it answers and demonstrates just how dramatically the Bush Administration has expanded the use of this technology, often in secret, to collect and sift through Americans' most sensitive personal information," Leahy said in a statement on July 10. "Unfortunately, the Congress and the American public know very little about these and other data mining programs, making them ripe for abuse. … I look forward to thoroughly examining the findings in this report with the Attorney General and the FBI Director in the coming weeks."