Utah's Congressional Delegation Supports Eavesdropping Without Warrant

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) All five of Utah's Congressmen and Senators voted to support a stopgap security measure expanding the government's authority to monitor international telephone calls and emails without a warrant. Over the weekend, President Bush signed into law a six-month update of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act first passed in 1978. Senator Bob Bennett says the expansion is necessary in light of Al Qaeda's growing strength:

I don't want to scare anybody, but at a time when intelligence is telling us that Al Qaeda is more active than it has been since any point since 9-11 and are probably going to be coming at us this fall, we have to change the FISA law to allow us to go back to the level of intelligence gathering that we were doing," says Bennett.

Bennett says recent court decisions have found the government's current surveillance tactics violate the law, because technology has changed dramatically since the 1970s. Many Democrats argued the expansion of eavesdropping abilities inappropriately violates the privacy of Americans speaking with people overseas. Senator Orrin Hatch disagrees:

"A terrorist in Afghanistan speaks with a terrorist in Iraq, and U.S. intelligence agencies need a court order to listen to this conversation? This is absurd!" says Hatch. "We need to bring FISA back to its original intent to protect the rights and privacy of American individuals while allowing us to monitor foreign individuals outside of the United States."

In essence, the law changes the legal definition of "electronic surveillance" to allow government eavesdropping in today's digital communication system. Congress passed the changes in last minute proceedings before leaving for August recess. But the new law expires in six months, so Congress will take up the debate again when they return to Washington.

Email to a friendPosted in KCPW Newsroom. Copyright 2009 KCPW