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Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:22:03 -0400
To: TSCM-L <TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com>
From: "James M. Atkinson" <jm..._at_tscm.com>
Subject: Top official gives scope of wiretaps
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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-spy_chief_thursaug23,1,1642308.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Top official gives scope of wiretaps
'100 or less' in U.S., 'thousands' abroad
From Tribune news services
August 23, 2007
WASHINGTON
Law-enforcement officials are targeting fewer than 100 people in
the U.S. for court-approved wiretaps aimed at disrupting terrorist
networks, the top U.S. intelligence official said in an interview
published Wednesday.
The relatively low number of those under surveillance in this country
stands in contrast with "thousands" of people overseas whose calls
and e-mails are monitored for possible links to terrorism, according
to Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell.
"If a terrorist calls in and it's another terrorist, I think the
American public would want us to do surveillance of that U.S.
person," he told the El Paso Times, which released a transcript of
the Aug. 14 interview.
Previously, few details about the scope of the U.S.-based
surveillance program had been made public.
McConnell made the revelation while visiting El Paso for a conference
on border security. In the interview, he explained the distinction
between court-sanctioned surveillance of Americans and the kind of
warrantless surveillance that U.S. officials can conduct under
legislation signed into law by President Bush this month.
The new law allows expanded, warrantless eavesdropping on foreigners'
calls and e-mails to people in the U.S., as long as the Americans
involved are not considered targets of the investigation.
If the U.S. recipient of a call turns out to be a terrorism suspect,
authorities would "just get a warrant," McConnell said. He described
the number of such cases as "manageable."
"On the U.S. persons side, it's 100 or less," he said. "And then, the
foreign side -- it's in the thousands.
"There's a sense that we're doing massive data mining. In fact, what
we're doing is surgical," he said. "A telephone number is surgical.
So, if you know what number, you can select it out."
McConnell's comments raised eyebrows for their frank discussion of
classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. Among his disclosures:
* The private sector assisted with Bush's warrantless surveillance
program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are
being sued for their cooperation. "Now if you play out the suits at
the value they're claimed, it would bankrupt these companies," he
said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help.
* It takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a single telephone number.
* A federal court ruled the Bush administration's warrantless
wiretapping program was illegal, prompting the rush in Congress this
month to overhaul key espionage provisions.
The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court's ruling earlier this
year was a major blow to U.S. spying operations, McConnell said, even
as intelligence analysts were expressing alarm that Al Qaeda was regrouping.
"We found ourselves in a position of actually losing ground."
McConnell said the ruling came during a routine court review of the
program. It meant the government had to get a court order to trace
calls or e-mails that traveled on networks in the U.S., even if the
parties at both ends were overseas.
The government obtained a temporary stay enabling it to continue
intercepting e-mails and phone calls without individual warrants
through May 31, McConnell said, as he began sounding alarms on
Capitol Hill that a key piece of the nation's counterterrorism
capabilities was about to be crippled.
Those warnings fueled a push in Congress to rewrite laws. The
emergency legislation, set to expire in six months, allowed the
government to resume its eavesdropping operations without individual warrants.
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Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:18 CST