A Push to Rewrite Wiretap Law

Inside Track: More Surveillance, More Often
by Philip Giraldi

Giraldi notes:

"On the domestic front, FISA only relates to communications involving
U.S. residents. The president is clearly seeking open-ended authority
to intercept communications without any due process, and he apparently
intends to do so in the United States, not in Iraq and its neighboring
countries where he already has that ability.

Whether America’s
intelligence and security services are even demanding more freedom to
tap phones and other communications to thwart terrorist attacks is
unclear, but there is no evidence to suggest that any terrorist success
anywhere has resulted from a lack of investigative tools in the hands
of the authorities. It is possible that a case can be made for a change
in the current policy, but the White House and its supporters in
Congress have not made that case."

Giraldi explains to those of us who have difficulty sorting through the mumbo jumbo:

"It is not as if FISA is much of an impediment anyway. Administration
assertions to the contrary, FISA, as currently constituted, already
permits full access to suspected terrorist communications. The requests
to initiate a teltap or other intrusion are almost always approved and
they can be implemented on an ad hoc basis by law enforcement even
without a formal ruling. The FISA court itself consists of judges who
are widely considered to be automatically inclined to accept the
government case, not to deny it on constitutional or probable cause
grounds. Critics of the proposed changes note that the White House will
apparently seek to grant telecommunications companies—hitherto
reluctant to turn over their records or permit electronic intrusion
into their networks without a court order—blanket immunity from
criminal prosecution or civil liability. If that is so and the attempt
to change the law is successful, it will mean that the government will
be empowered to obtain the communications of any American at any time
without any process involved to protect individual rights."

http://www.nationalinterest.org/PrinterFri...y.aspx?id=15082

Under pressure from President Bush, Democratic leaders in Congress
are scrambling to pass legislation this week to expand the government’s
electronic wiretapping powers.

Democratic leaders have
expressed a new willingness to work with the White House to amend the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to make it easier for the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on some purely foreign telephone calls and e-mail. Such a step now requires court approval.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/01/washington/01nsa.html?ex=1343620800&en=f84a7e561028490e&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss 

Fix FISA Fastby Jed BabbinUS
intelligence agencies are missing out on what may be enormous amounts
of crucial intelligence on foreign-based terrorists apparently due to a
classified ruling of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court in
about April 2007  http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=21780