[Osx-nutters] the new surveillance bill(s): went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed

[Kevin Callahan]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/washington/06nsa.html? 
_r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1186431268-0g7w9aYsfBanv9mm+QzfzQ>


Bush Signs Law to Widen Reach for Wiretapping


By JAMES RISEN
Published: August 6, 2007
WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — President Bush signed into law on Sunday  
legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to  
eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of  
American citizens without warrants.

Related

Blogtalk: Debating the FISA Bill

Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law  
said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that  
administration officials had said were needed to gather information  
about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in  
legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the  
government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail  
messages going in and out of the United States.

They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal  
framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was  
being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside  
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is  
supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private  
communications of American citizens.

“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin,  
director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington,  
who has studied the new legislation.

Previously, the government needed search warrants approved by a  
special intelligence court to eavesdrop on telephone conversations, e- 
mail messages and other electronic communications between individuals  
inside the United States and people overseas, if the government  
conducted the surveillance inside the United States.

Today, most international telephone conversations to and from the  
United States are conducted over fiber-optic cables, and the most  
efficient way for the government to eavesdrop on them is to latch on  
to giant telecommunications switches located in the United States.

By changing the legal definition of what is considered “electronic  
surveillance,” the new law allows the government to eavesdrop on  
those conversations without warrants — latching on to those giant  
switches — as long as the target of the government’s surveillance is  
“reasonably believed” to be overseas.

For example, if a person in Indianapolis calls someone in London, the  
National Security Agency can eavesdrop on that conversation without a  
warrant, as long as the N.S.A.’s target is the person in London.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said Sunday in an interview  
that the new law went beyond fixing the foreign-to-foreign problem,  
potentially allowing the government to listen to Americans calling  
overseas.

But he stressed that the objective of the new law is to give the  
government greater flexibility in focusing on foreign suspects  
overseas, not to go after Americans.

“It’s foreign, that’s the point,” Mr. Fratto said. “What you want to  
make sure is that you are getting the foreign target.”

The legislation to change the surveillance act was rushed through  
both the House and Senate in the last days before the August recess  
began.

The White House’s push for the change was driven in part by a still- 
classified ruling earlier this year by the special intelligence  
court, which said the government needed to seek court-approved  
warrants to monitor those international calls going through American  
switches.

The new law, which is intended as a stopgap and expires in six  
months, also represents a power shift in terms of the oversight and  
regulation of government surveillance.

The new law gives the attorney general and the director of national  
intelligence the power to approve the international surveillance,  
rather than the special intelligence court. The court’s only role  
will be to review and approve the procedures used by the government  
in the surveillance after it has been conducted. It will not  
scrutinize the cases of the individuals being monitored.

The law also gave the administration greater power to force  
telecommunications companies to cooperate with such spying  
operations. The companies can now be compelled to cooperate by orders  
from the attorney general and the director of national intelligence.

Democratic Congressional aides said Sunday that some  
telecommunications company officials had told Congressional leaders  
that they were unhappy with that provision in the bill and might  
challenge the new law in court. The aides said the telecommunications  
companies had told lawmakers that they would rather have a court- 
approved warrant ordering them to comply.

In fact, pressure from the telecommunications companies on the Bush  
administration has apparently played a major hidden role in the  
political battle over the surveillance issue over the past few months.

In January, the administration placed the N.S.A.’s warrantless  
wiretapping program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,  
and subjected it for the first time to the scrutiny of the FISA court.

Democratic Congressional aides said Sunday that they believed that  
pressure from major telecommunications companies on the White House  
was a major factor in persuading the Bush administration to do that.  
Those companies were facing major lawsuits for having secretly  
cooperated with the warrantless wiretapping program, and now wanted  
greater legal protections before cooperating further.

But the change suddenly swamped the court with an enormous volume of  
search warrant applications, leading, in turn, to the  
administration’s decision to seek the new legislation.