Bush Admin. Asks Congress to Expand Number of People That Can Be Electronically Surveilled

[Jcrowley]

Bush asks Congress to alter 1978 eavesdropping law
Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:53PM EDT

By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration asked Congress on Friday to expand the number of people it can subject to electronic surveillance in the United States.

The request was contained in a proposed bill authored by intelligence and Justice Department officials that also protects companies that cooperate with spy operations.

Legislation submitted a week ahead of a Senate hearing on government surveillance practices calls for the 1978 law that governs eavesdropping operations to be updated to combat the threat from Islamist militants who use computer and wireless technology that did not exist in the 1970s.

It was not clear what kind of reception the proposal would receive in Congress, where Democrats took over in January for the first time since 1994.

But the move was likely to reinvigorate a congressional debate over the effectiveness of the generation-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Several efforts to update the law, designed to oversee electronic eavesdropping against foreign agents operating inside the United States, failed in Congress last year.

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN1321090420070413

[Warren DeMontague]

1. So the FISA law that they don't have to obey needs to be modified to make it easier

...for them not to obey it?

[Buzz Clik]

2. Indeed. The reaction from Congress will tell us everything.

If they tell Bush to go to hell and give him nothing, I will be shocked.

My guess is that the Dem leadership will shake their fingers and make threats and quietly allow the language to appear in some obscure passage, and our rights will be further eroded.

[formercia]

7. Take names

Inquiring minds want to know how many Dems went to the dark side.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. You know, impeachdubya...Ya really should be a politician!

You've got the understanding of doublespeak down cold! :hi:

[Warren DeMontague]

8. Nah, this is how they'll present it: "The world is still filled with evildoers

and we must give law enforcement all the tools they need to protect Americans"

[Jcrowley]

11. Deja Vu All Over Again

Docs: Similar Wiretap Debate 30 Years Ago

By MARGARET EBRAHIM, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 3, 7:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON - An intense debate erupted during the Ford administration over the president's powers to eavesdrop without warrants to gather foreign intelligence, according to newly disclosed government documents. George H.W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and
Dick Cheney are cited in the documents.

The roughly 200 pages of historic records obtained by The Associated Press reflect a remarkably similar dispute between the White House and Congress fully three decades before
President Bush's acknowledgment he authorized wiretaps without warrants of some Americans in terrorism investigations.

"Yogi Bera was right: It's deja vu all over again," said Tom Blanton, executive director for the National Security Archives, a private research group that compiles collections of sensitive government documents. "It's the same debate."

http://web.archive.org/web/20060213222729/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060204/ap_on_go_pr_wh/ford_era_spying_1

[Solly Mack]

6. Exactly. They pretend they're following the law by asking Congress

to do something they are already doing. Cause if they're asking for an expansion it's a safe assumption that they've already expanded...

[Monkeyman]

3. Coming Soon Big Eye Watching You

[Marr]

5. Something tells me that Bush Admin. surveillance abuses are about to come to light.

This is the sort of thing they always do when their malfeasance is caught- they push harder in the same direction. Like when Democrats won back the Congress, sending the clear message that the US population is sick of the Iraq occupation. The Bush Administration responded by demanding *escalation*.

As many have noted, their rhetorical attacks always have a very heavy amount of projection mixed in. Their policies are the same way.

[Fresh_Start]

9. I agree to adding everyone in bushco to the electronic surveilled

thats at least 3000 more people right there

[whistle]

10. Bush now wants to go after ALL democrats

[sakabatou]

12. And every house and every room will have a telecreen

Nothing will get away from Big Brother.