Bush, Congress in spy bill standoff
Saturday, 16 February 2008
WASHINGTON, Feb 15 (AP): With a deadline looming, President Bush and congressional Democrats are locked in a standoff over the government's authority to spy on foreign phone calls and e-mails that pass through the United States (US).
A temporary law that makes it easier to carry out that spying expires Saturday night at midnight, and Bush and his top intelligence officials say the consequences are dire. Al-Qaeda, Bush says, is "thinking about hurting the American people again," and would be helped if US eavesdropping is hampered.
The Democrats are equally adamant. Bush has all the authority he needs to intercept terrorist communications, even if the law expires, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. The congressional majority is simply trying to balance concerns about civil liberties against the government's spy powers, and needs time to do it, she said.
So who's right?
A quirk in the temporary eavesdropping law adopted by Congress last August complicates the answer. The law allows the government to initiate wiretaps for up to one year against a wide range of targets. It also explicitly compels telecommunications companies to comply with the orders, and protects them from civil lawsuits that may be filed against them for doing so.
But while the wiretap orders can go on for a year from the time they started, the compliance orders and the liability protections go away when the law expires, says Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.
"There is no longer a way to compel the private sector to help us," he said Thursday in an Associated Press interview.
That is not exactly true. Even if the law expires, the government can get an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to compel their cooperation. That court was created 30 years ago for just such a purpose.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires court permission to tap wires inside the US. Changes in technology since then mean much of the world's computer and phone traffic passes through the US, much of it on fiber-optic cable. Successive court cases say court orders are needed to listen in on any of them, McConnell said.
A temporary law that makes it easier to carry out that spying expires Saturday night at midnight, and Bush and his top intelligence officials say the consequences are dire. Al-Qaeda, Bush says, is "thinking about hurting the American people again," and would be helped if US eavesdropping is hampered.
The Democrats are equally adamant. Bush has all the authority he needs to intercept terrorist communications, even if the law expires, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday. The congressional majority is simply trying to balance concerns about civil liberties against the government's spy powers, and needs time to do it, she said.
So who's right?
A quirk in the temporary eavesdropping law adopted by Congress last August complicates the answer. The law allows the government to initiate wiretaps for up to one year against a wide range of targets. It also explicitly compels telecommunications companies to comply with the orders, and protects them from civil lawsuits that may be filed against them for doing so.
But while the wiretap orders can go on for a year from the time they started, the compliance orders and the liability protections go away when the law expires, says Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.
"There is no longer a way to compel the private sector to help us," he said Thursday in an Associated Press interview.
That is not exactly true. Even if the law expires, the government can get an order from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to compel their cooperation. That court was created 30 years ago for just such a purpose.
The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires court permission to tap wires inside the US. Changes in technology since then mean much of the world's computer and phone traffic passes through the US, much of it on fiber-optic cable. Successive court cases say court orders are needed to listen in on any of them, McConnell said.