MrDave
May 9th, 2003, 3:18pm
The daily assault on our rights continues. Don't tell the vets.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/129/nation/Senate_bill_eases_wiretap_limits+.shtml
Senate bill eases wiretap limits
By Ted Bridis, Associated Press, 5/9/2003
WASHINGTON -- The Senate easily passed a measure yesterday expanding a powerful surveillance law used in spy and terrorism investigations to allow US agents to wiretap lone foreigners who can't be linked to a terrorist organization or government.
US law enforcement officers can now get warrants authorizing intelligence-gathering wiretaps from a secret court, but only if they establish a reasonable belief that the target is an ''agent of a foreign power'' or group. The bill, which passed 90 to 4, would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to remove that requirement.
As used in the act, the term ''agent of a foreign power'' includes those controlled by governments, political organizations, or terrorist groups. But lawmakers feared that that requirement could hinder the FBI when agents can't make a link to a known terrorist organization or foreign government.
The bill, introduced by Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, has become known in Washington as the ''lone wolf'' measure. It still must be passed in the House.
Proponents have also described the bill as the ''Moussaoui fix,'' because investigators in the weeks preceding the Sept. 11 attacks were unable to establish any connection between Al Qaeda and Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone defendant charged as a conspirator with the 19 hijackers. Without that link, FBI headquarters believed they could not get a warrant targeting him.
''This is a reasonable provision that deals with change in the post 9/11 world,'' Schumer said after the vote. ''Even individuals are empowered by technology and can do huge damage here to the homeland.''
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, criticized the bill as a quick fix that that the FBI had not sought. ''This is aimed at making Americans feel safer, but it doesn't make them safer,'' he said.
Senators rejected, 35-59, an amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, that would have given federal judges more discretion on when to approve such surveillance warrants against foreigners believed to be acting on their own.
Feinstein said the change sought by Schumer and Kyl goes too far, because it gives federal prosecutors too powerful a tool with far less judicial oversight than traditional wiretap laws.
In a compromise reached last week, the bill was changed to include a provision by Senator Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, requiring that the Justice Department report to lawmakers how often that ''lone wolf'' provision is employed.
Feingold said he worried that with the Senate changes the law might substitute for traditional wiretaps, which are harder to obtain and include more civil rights protection.
This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 5/9/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/129/nation/Senate_bill_eases_wiretap_limits+.shtml
Senate bill eases wiretap limits
By Ted Bridis, Associated Press, 5/9/2003
WASHINGTON -- The Senate easily passed a measure yesterday expanding a powerful surveillance law used in spy and terrorism investigations to allow US agents to wiretap lone foreigners who can't be linked to a terrorist organization or government.
US law enforcement officers can now get warrants authorizing intelligence-gathering wiretaps from a secret court, but only if they establish a reasonable belief that the target is an ''agent of a foreign power'' or group. The bill, which passed 90 to 4, would amend the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to remove that requirement.
As used in the act, the term ''agent of a foreign power'' includes those controlled by governments, political organizations, or terrorist groups. But lawmakers feared that that requirement could hinder the FBI when agents can't make a link to a known terrorist organization or foreign government.
The bill, introduced by Senators Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, has become known in Washington as the ''lone wolf'' measure. It still must be passed in the House.
Proponents have also described the bill as the ''Moussaoui fix,'' because investigators in the weeks preceding the Sept. 11 attacks were unable to establish any connection between Al Qaeda and Zacarias Moussaoui, the lone defendant charged as a conspirator with the 19 hijackers. Without that link, FBI headquarters believed they could not get a warrant targeting him.
''This is a reasonable provision that deals with change in the post 9/11 world,'' Schumer said after the vote. ''Even individuals are empowered by technology and can do huge damage here to the homeland.''
Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, criticized the bill as a quick fix that that the FBI had not sought. ''This is aimed at making Americans feel safer, but it doesn't make them safer,'' he said.
Senators rejected, 35-59, an amendment by Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, that would have given federal judges more discretion on when to approve such surveillance warrants against foreigners believed to be acting on their own.
Feinstein said the change sought by Schumer and Kyl goes too far, because it gives federal prosecutors too powerful a tool with far less judicial oversight than traditional wiretap laws.
In a compromise reached last week, the bill was changed to include a provision by Senator Russell Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, requiring that the Justice Department report to lawmakers how often that ''lone wolf'' provision is employed.
Feingold said he worried that with the Senate changes the law might substitute for traditional wiretaps, which are harder to obtain and include more civil rights protection.
This story ran on page A2 of the Boston Globe on 5/9/2003.
© Copyright 2003 Globe Newspaper Company.