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Title: Bush calls for expansion of spy law
Source:
Yahoo News
URL Source: [None]
Published: Sep 19, 2007
Author: DEB RIECHMANN
Post Date: 2007-09-19 21:09:13 by kiki
Keywords: None
Views: 159
Comments: 12
FORT MEADE, Md. - President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists. Without such action, Bush said, "our national security professionals will lose critical tools they need to protect our country." "It will be harder to figure out what our enemies are doing to train, recruit and infiltrate operatives into America," the president said during a visit to the super-secret National Security Agency's headquarters. "Without these tools, our country will be much more vulnerable to attack." The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act governs when the government must obtain warrants for eavesdropping from a secret intelligence court. This year's update — approved just before Congress' August break — allows more efficient interceptions of foreign communications. Under the new law, the government can eavesdrop without a court order on communications conducted by a person reasonably believed to be outside the U.S., even if an American is on one end of the conversation — so long as that American is not the intended focus or target of the surveillance. In requesting the change, the Bush administration said technological advances in communications had created a dire gap in the ability to collect intelligence on terrorists. Such surveillance generally was prohibited under the original law if the wiretap was conducted inside the U.S., unless a court approved it. Because of changes in technology, many more foreign communications now flow through the U.S. The new law, known as the Protect America Act, allows those to be tapped without a court order. Civil liberties groups and many Democrats say the new changes go too far. Democratic leaders in Congress set the law to expire in six months so that it could be fine-tuned; that process now is beginning on Capitol Hill. Democrats hope for changes that would provide additional oversight when the government eavesdrops on U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said lawmakers understand the need to update the law, but also the need to protect the rights and liberties of Americans. "For over five years, the president carried out a warrantless surveillance program that ignored the law and the role of court oversight," Rockefeller said. "Today, the president continues to seek unchecked surveillance powers that many of us in Congress cannot support. The fact is, the Protect America Act did provide authority for collection, but it did not include sufficient protections for Americans. There's no reason we can't do both," Rockefeller said. "The president needs to step up to the plate and show that he is willing to work with Congress to get this important legislation passed." Bush timed his visit to Fort Meade to press his case. "The threat from al-Qaida is not going to expire in 135 days," he said, "so I call on Congress to make the Protect America Act permanent." He also urged lawmakers to expand the law, not restrict it. One provision particularly important to the administration, but opposed by many Democrats, would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies which may have helped the government conduct surveillance before January 2007 without a court order. Bush was joined at the podium in an NSA hallway by Vice President Dick Cheney, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell and others. The president received private briefings from intelligence officials and mingled with employees in the National Threat Operations Center. While cameras and reporters were in the room, the large video screens that lined the walls displayed unclassified information on computer crime and signal intelligence. Along one wall at NSA is a sign that says, "We won't back down. We never have. We never will."
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#1. To: kiki (#0)
The better to taser you.
Ron Paul for President - Join a Ron Paul Meetup group today!
I think Anti-Americanism should be a felony punishable by hanging.
I think that anyone that invokes the "Homeland" should be shot to death.
Don't joke around, someone will agree with you!
Ron Paul for President - Join a Ron Paul Meetup group today!
Fine idea. Hitler and his buddy Stalin used "Motherland and Fatherland" so that was taken in the history books. Thus Bushe uses "Homeland".
Is there a knock at your door?
Retroactive immunity from prosecution is a beautiful thing if you're a major telecommunications provider in the US, and phone companies are about to receive it if the Bush administration gets its way. The administration's new appropriations request for intelligence agencies was recently disclosed at a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and it includes a massive gift to the phone companies who have been (can we drop the "allegedly" at this point?) helping the NSA and other agencies. Prepare yourself for the longest single sentence you have ever read: That's from section 408 of the proposed bill, and it's buried beneath the innocuous headline "Liability Defense." As the government explains later in an analysis of the bill, "companies that cooperate with the Government in the war on terror deserve our appreciation and protection—not litigation." Any court case dealing with the issue would be thrown out of court, and the protection would include all phone company interaction with the intelligence community since September 11. The issue of whether any of this behavior was legal is not important. The government has already argued that legality doesn't matter when it comes to the phone companies, since even a ruling that their actions were illegal would expose the existence of the intelligence-gathering program in question. Therefore, such cases should not even be considered by the courts. Kenneth Wainstein, an assistant attorney general at the Department of Justice, told the assembled Senators that this provision of the bill would simply "fill a gap in our laws" by allowing the phone companies to assist the government. When news of the NSA's alleged wiretapping of American firms (with their knowledge) broke back in 2005, we reported on the powerful technology apparently being deployed inside secret rooms at telco facilities. Despite the fact that this raised all sorts of questions about domestic surveillance and legality, Congress decided that it simply wasn't worth looking into after hearing from Vice President Cheney about the matter. With Congress unwilling to figure out what was going on, individuals and advocacy groups began filing lawsuits against the phone companies. The EFF and others argued that communications privacy laws had been violated, but the government countered by claiming that a "state secrets" privilege meant that the cases should simply be thrown out. Though some cases were dismissed, the EFF's case against AT&T continues, though it would also be dismissed if the proposed new legislation passes. With the Democrats now holding much more power, though, it's not clear that the blanket immunity grant will survive. However, the bill itself needs to pass in some form in order to keep funding the US intelligence apparatus.
Someday a few American Patriots will make you lick the paint off that wall you nazis.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Boy wouldn't that be nice. God I hope I live to see that day, but I doubt it with the current infestation of sheep our country seems to be suffering under.
The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach. Lin Yutang "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." --- William Casey, Director CIA (Quote from internal staff meeting notes 1981)
I don't think NSA veterans will agree that those phrases describe their government's conduct with respect to the attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. By the way, I wonder when was the last time a bunch of reporters were allowed into NSA headquarters.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
Bush regularly is driven to the adjoining Patuxent federal reservation so that he can go for one of his bike rides there.
To reason, indeed, he was not in the habit of attending. His mode of arguing, if it is to be so called, was one not uncommon among dull and stubborn persons, who are accustomed to be surrounded by their inferiors. He asserted a proposition; and, as often as wiser people ventured respectfully to show that it was erroneous, he asserted it again, in exactly the same words, and conceived that, by doing so, he at once disposed of all objections. - Macaulay, "History of England," Vol. 1, Chapter 6, on James II.
The sheep need to be culled. Once their numbers are reduced, the Patriots will have an easier go of it.
Law Enforcement Against ProhibitionIn requesting the change, the Bush administration said technological advances in communications had created a dire gap in the ability to collect intelligence on terrorists.
#2. To: robin (#1)
President Bush said Wednesday he wants Congress to expand and make permanent a law that temporarily gives the government more power to eavesdrop without warrants on suspected foreign terrorists.
#3. To: Cynicom (#2)
#4. To: Cynicom (#2)
#5. To: lodwick (#3)
I think that anyone that invokes the "Homeland" should be shot to death.
#6. To: robin (#4)
Don't joke around, someone will agree with you!
#7. To: All (#0)
One provision particularly important to the administration, but opposed by many Democrats, would grant retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies which may have helped the government conduct surveillance before January 2007 without a court order.
Notwithstanding any other law, and in addition to the immunities, privileges, and defenses provided by any other source of law, no action shall lie or be maintained in any court, and no penalty, sanction, or other form of remedy or relief shall be imposed by any court or any other body, against any person for the alleged provision to an element of the intelligence community of any information (including records or other information pertaining to a customer), facilities, or any other form of assistance, during the period of time beginning on September 11, 2001, and ending on the date that is the effective date of this Act, in connection with any alleged classified communications intelligence activity that the Attorney General or a designee of the Attorney General certifies, in a manner consistent with the protection of State secrets, is, was, would be, or would have been intended to protect the United States from a terrorist attack.
#8. To: kiki (#0)
Along one wall at NSA is a sign that says, "We won't back down. We never have. We never will."
"There is no 'legitimate' Corporation by virtue of it's very legal definition and purpose."
-- IndieTx
#9. To: IndieTX (#8)
Someday a few American Patriots will make you lick the paint off that wall you nazis.
#10. To: kiki (#0)
Along one wall at NSA is a sign that says, "We won't back down. We never have. We never will."
#11. To: kiki (#0)
Bush timed his visit to Fort Meade to press his case.
#12. To: intotheabyss (#9)
but I doubt it with the current infestation of sheep our country seems to be suffering under
"There is no 'legitimate' Corporation by virtue of it's very legal definition and purpose."
-- IndieTx
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