Zen21Tao
Member
I have to admit. I have been pretty middle of the road over when it comes to privacy rights, phone tapping and Patriot Act debates. I understand the dangers of a government given free reign to monitor its citizens but I also know how bureaucratic delays can cost citizens their lives.
But, stories like this below have me asking where we draw the line. It just seems ridiculous when the US has to spend 10-12 hours going through legal channels to get "proper" approval to wiretap an Iraqi phone believed to be connected with the kidnapping of American soldiers.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070924/a_missing24.art.htm
But, stories like this below have me asking where we draw the line. It just seems ridiculous when the US has to spend 10-12 hours going through legal channels to get "proper" approval to wiretap an Iraqi phone believed to be connected with the kidnapping of American soldiers.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070924/a_missing24.art.htm
McConnell puts human faces to FISA debate
Says flaws hurt hunt for missing soldiers
By Richard Willing
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — privacy rules forced intelligence agencies to wait about 12 hours to tap an Iraqi phone number believed to be connected to the kidnappers of three U.S. soldiers in Iraq this spring, intelligence officials have told members of Congress.
By the time officials obtained the legal permission for the tap, it was no longer useful, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell told the House Intelligence Committee. The officials had to show that the target likely was a foreign agent and get the attorney general's approval, which is why it took so long, he said.
The kidnapping case puts human faces on the debate over the future of the foreign surveillance law, a discussion that had previously been highly technical. Some committee Democrats, however, suggested the incident had been exaggerated. They asked why agents did not proceed with a wiretap and then seek authority later, a power that has been part of the surveillance law for years.
Two of the soldiers, from the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, N.Y., remain missing, according to Pentagon reports. A third was found killed in Iraq on May 23, 11 days after the men were captured in a raid south of Baghdad that the Army believes was carried out by al-Qaeda.
Since May, intelligence officials have cited the incident in classified discussions as evidence that surveillance laws that provide too much protection to foreign targets need to be changed.
During a hearing of the House Intelligence Committee on Thursday, McConnell and Kenneth Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security, mentioned the general outline of the case to argue that a temporary law passed in August, which streamlined those rules, should be made permanent. Citing the sensitivity of the matter, McConnell and Wainstein did not identify the soldiers or their unit.
"It took time (to begin the tap)," McConnell said, because the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) required intelligence agents to first demonstrate to the U.S. attorney general that the target was likely an agent of a foreign power.
Surveillance of foreigners overseas does not always require such an assurance. However, many foreign calls pass through U.S. telecommunications networks, requiring the attorney general's approval.
McConnell called the requirement, which has been temporarily eliminated, "burdensome."
"It seems like an issue of command," said Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the panel chairman. Getting approval for such emergency wiretaps should take "only a few minutes" and "one phone call," Reyes said, citing Harvard University law professor James Baker, a former Justice Department surveillance specialist.
Wainstein said the law required officials to obtain enough details to support a search warrant — either before they create the wiretap or after if they seek retroactive approval — so they did it first.
Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat on the committee, said McConnell was trying to "politicize the debate" over electronic surveillance of intelligence targets by using the soldiers' case.
The men — Spc. Alex Jimenez, Pfc. Byron Fouty and Pfc. Joseph Anzack — were part of a group patrolling a road south of Baghdad on May 12 when they came under attack. Four other soldiers were killed, and the men were taken prisoner. House searches turned up papers that suggested that the attackers were al-Qaeda members. At least one phone number that authorities thought germane was also discovered.
On May 23, Anzack's body was found in the Euphrates River about a mile south of the attack site. Two weeks later, an insurgent website posted photos of Jimenez's and Fouty's military identification cards.
On Sunday, Maj. Robert Griggs, operations officer for the soldiers' battalion, said in an e-mail that a man believed to be involved in the kidnappings was captured recently. Search efforts continue, Griggs said.
The incident occurred just as McConnell began urging Congress to make it easier to conduct surveillance on foreign targets abroad. Under a law signed Aug. 5, intelligence agencies no longer need authorization from the attorney general or the secret FISA court to intercept foreign-to-foreign telephone calls and e-mails, even if they pass through American carriers. Such calls, McConnell told the House Intelligence Committee last week, make up more than 99% of all calls that U.S. intelligence agencies intercept.
That law expires Feb. 5. McConnell says it needs to be made permanent to guarantee "agility, speed and focus" in intelligence collection. Congressional Democrats, such as Reyes and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan, have said they want any law to guarantee that communications between Americans and persons abroad will not be subject to unauthorized surveillance.
