FISA: Fear-mongering and What We've Learned Since January

May 14, 2008

January 18th - During remarks in St. Mary's City, Maryland, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell claimed that "weak" wiretapping laws were at fault for the events of September 11, 2001. However, both the National Intelligence Estimate and the 9/11 Commission report clearly demonstrate that the information was there – but no one paid attention. Chalk one more McConnell fib up on the board.

March 10th - A report surfaced in the Wall Street Journal that the government was resurrecting the Total Information Awareness program, which includes information collected by the NSA warrantless wiretapping. The article both echoed and confirmed the ACLU's past warnings that the NSA is engaging in extremely broad-based data mining that is violating the privacy of vast numbers of Americans. Similar reports appeared earlier in National Journal.

March 13th – In a report on the FBI's use of National Security Letters, or NSLs, the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General revealed that FBI agents twice applied to – and were rejected by –the FISC for a Patriot Act Section 215 order to obtain business records because the evidence was thin and the information implicated First Amendment activity. When the FISC denied the agents a second time, the FBI General Counsel overruled the court and obtained the materials by issuing an NSL. Clearly, it does not bode well for Americans' privacy when the FBI General Counsel is single-handedly overriding judicial rulings.

March 26th - The administration once again turned to fear-mongering: when speaking before an audience in San Francisco, Attorney General Michael Mukasey claimed that a call from Afghanistan to the United States was not picked up by US intelligence in the days leading up to September 11th, 2001. Mukasey blamed that missed call – and the death toll of 9/11 – on loopholes in FISA. That claim was quickly proven to be shamefully and completely false by the media.

April 1st - A story appeared in the Los Angeles Times that detailed McConnell's failure in his role as go-between on the Protect America Act and subsequent FISA legislation. The story made clear that lawmakers are not pleased with his bad-faith negotiating and tunnel-vision debate style.

April 8th, 2008 - A whistleblower named Babak Pasdar came forward to disclose the existence of the "Quantico Circuit," which allows the FBI to directly link into telecommunications networks. Pasdar's revelations, like that of AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein, shed light on the increasingly and perilously intertwined relationship between telecoms and the government. Clearly we're still learning the extent of that relationship and Pasdar's revelations should also be front and center as Congress continues to debate giving blanket immunity to telecoms for their role in domestic spying.

May 1st - The Justice Department confirmed that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) approved over 2,300 surveillance warrants last year – a 9% increase from the year before. This fact shows that, contrary to claims found in an article from The Hill stating the intelligence community would have the "cumbersome" task of preparing dozens of individual warrants if new legislation updating FISA is not put into place by Memorial Day, the FISC is processing record numbers of warrants. It goes against logic to think that, if the court can approve over 2,300 warrants in a year a dozen more individual warrants – guaranteed by the Fourth Amendment when an American is involved – would somehow burden the intelligence community or the court.