ACLU Urges Congress Not to Repeat History With FISA (12/13/2007)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: 202-675-2312 or
media@dcaclu.org
Washington, DC – Director of National Intelligence, Michael McConnell, and
Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, were scheduled to hold a closed congressional
briefing today with legislation aimed at amending the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Act (FISA). The Senate is expected to vote in the coming days on
FISA legislation largely shaped by the White House and passed by the Senate
Intelligence Committee. The bill includes a provision that would give immunity
to telecommunications companies who aided in the administration’s domestic
spying. Also today, a bill introduced by Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) that would
substitute the government as the plaintiff in cases currently pending against
the telecoms was voted down in a meeting of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“They say history repeats itself and, if Congress isn’t
careful, sadly it will prove this saying true,” said Caroline Fredrickson,
director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. “What ever happened to once bitten,
twice shy? Last summer, both houses
of Congress blindly followed the administration and Director McConnell and
passed legislation that stripped Fourth Amendment protections from
Americans. Now, with Congress
staring down a February 1st deadline, the administration is once again beating
the war drums and sending its ambassadors to the Hill. Members of Congress should not again be
so easily intimidated. They have
the chance to rewrite history and they should seize it.”
Director McConnell played a central role in negotiations
around the so-called Protect America Act (PAA), rushed through Congress in
August. Acting on behalf of the
White House, McConnell worked to convince members to “modernize” FISA by
spinning a story about American soldiers put in harm’s way because of crucial
gaps in FISA (when it was in reality the only gaps were due to bureaucratic
blunders at the Justice Department). McConnell also made inflated claims about the
amount of time spent on FISA warrants and, perhaps most disturbing, exaggerated
a terrorist threat against the United States. Many members of Congress including
Senators Rockefeller and Feinstein, publicly criticized Director McConnell ‘s
overstated claims during the days leading to the passage of the
PAA
“It would be a huge mistake for Congress to let itself be
hoodwinked once again by the administration,” said Fredrickson “Members have an
obligation to uphold the Constitution and Fourth Amendment – especially when
both are so easily ignored by the executive branch. We urge lawmakers to be wary of the
administration’s bag of tricks.
Director McConnell sold members of Congress a lemon in August. Why should they listen to him
now?”
For more
information about FISA, go to:
www.aclu.org/fisa
For an
outline of Director McConnell’s myths and facts, go
to:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/31879prs20070920.html
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