CE Week #6: “Democrats’ bill would ease warrants”
Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post
October 7, 2007
WASHINGTON – House Democrats plan to introduce a bill this week that would let a secret court issue one-year “umbrella” warrants to allow the government to intercept e-mails and phone calls of foreign targets and would not require that surveillance of each person be approved individually.
The bill is likely to resurrect controversy that erupted this summer when Congress, under White House pressure, rushed through a temporary emergency law that expanded the government’s authority to conduct foreign surveillance on U.S. soil without a warrant. The Protect America Act, which expires in February, has been criticized as being too broad and lacking effective court oversight.
The Democrats’ legislation, drafted by the Intelligence and Judiciary committee chairmen, is aimed to reconcile civil liberties, privacy and national security concerns. It would overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a 1978 law amended many times that the Bush administration argues has been outstripped by technology.
“Some conservatives want no judicial oversight, and some liberals oppose any notion of a blanket order,” said James Dempsey, Center for Democracy and Technology policy director. “So the challenge of the Democratic leadership is to strike a balance, one that gives the National Security Agency the flexibility to select its targets overseas but that keeps the court involved to protect the private communications of innocent Americans.”
The bill would require the Justice Department inspector general to audit the use of the umbrella warrant and issue quarterly reports to a special FISA court and to Congress, according to congressional aides involved in drafting the legislation.
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Make Up…
Here we go again. All the talk about phone tapping and the government reading peoples e-mails, and all that good stuff. People must really want to see what others are doing, especially the House Democrats because they are the ones introducing this new bill. Honestly I don’t think this new bill will pass, I think this because how many times hve they introduced bills to tap into phone lines, and how many times have those bills been shot down to the abyss. These people need to just give up. I personally have a split decision on this. I think that we should tap into the lines of suspected bad guys, or terrorists in order to maybe end the war on terror, or maybe to even just catch some bad guys. But on the other hand I personally would not like others listening to my conversations on phones, some of the stuff you tell people is really private, and you don’t want it to leave that conversation, but after thinking about it I am sure the government would not be telling anybody anything, unless they actually caught a terrorist, but fortunately for the government I am not a terrorist, so both them and I have nothing to worry about. So I am glad I read this article because I could actually understand it unlike the last one.
This is a very interesting article. In fact all the articles we read are interesting. I must just be a political junky like Mr. Kautzman. Anyway, I find it ironic that so many democrats are complaining about the patriot act and how it is against the amendment rights, and now the democrats are introducing a bill that is doing basically the exact same thing. A bill that “would let a secret court issue one-year “umbrella” warrants to allow the government to intercept e-mails and phone calls of foreign targets and would not require that surveillance of each person be approved individually.” I do though think that the creation of this bill is a very good idea. This bill is needed to insure the protection of the citizens of our country. We need a bill like this to know what our enemies are doing. With this bill we can keep an eye on the enemy without having to get so much approval from the courts. “The bill would require the Justice Department inspector general to audit the use of the umbrella warrant and issue quarterly reports to a special FISA court and to Congress, according to congressional aides involved in drafting the legislation.” This quote shows why it would be such a good way of keeping an eye on our enemies.
So I think that this has been a big issue for sometime. I’ve heard a lot of different approaches to this topic and they all seem to come down to the government wanting to tap into others lives with a little resistance or approval necessary. This suggested bill seems to try and find a middle ground for all of those that it would concern. “So the challenge of the Democratic leadership is to strike a balance, one that gives the National Security Agency the flexibility to select its targets overseas but that keeps the court involved to protect the private communications of innocent Americans.” This quote kind of seems to sum it up. The National Security Agency wants flexibility so that they can “protect” America. With the little approval necessary they could tap and survey anyone they had a doubt about with extreme ease. However, the courts obviously don’t want to make it too easy otherwise Americans would think that the government was invading their privacies and freedoms. Altogether I think that if the Democratic Party can find a good compromise between these two extremes I think that it would be an incredible thing. This bill would allow our government to, I think, increase our safety. It won’t be an easy task, but definitely something worth tackling.
What? This sound like it’s in big violation of our rights. Although I am all about Americas power and protecting our country, any time these surveillance topics are brought up it makes me mad. I know terrorism is a big problem in our country today, but to have surveillance on all of us is outrageous. I can’t believe the democrats would want or all something like this. I know we need to do something to find and stop the terrorists, but maybe we just need to give up our right and I need to suck it up so this country can be safe. I guess it is easier to give up one right than to see 5,000 more people die.
The fact is you can’t give the government that kind of power to arrest people without warrants because they think they’re associated with terrorist. This is also in violations of their rights, plus our government isn’t perfect; they get the wrong guy all the time. The article says that these “umbrella” warrants are just too vague. Which they are you can’t arrest someone on some accusations that you have. You need proof. If we were to throw this power into the wrong hands then id would be disastrous. We would never have to worry about the whites being the minority.
I got so say that I don’t agree with Roary that much. I think phone tapping is perfectly fine. I don’t think that any people who are good law abiding citizens should have to worry. It’s not like they are tapping the phone lines to see if you are cussing too much or are doing this or that. They are just trying to watch out for terrorist trying to blow us up. Personly I think that it is worth my saftey to have them listen into a minute of phone concersation and protect me. The only reason I would not support this is because I think that the government is spending money the most efficient way when it comes to terrorism. So the only reason I would say this is a bad idea is to save our money. And about the argue ment that Roary made about a person who is not quilty going to jail, well thats not that likely. Thats because not like many other conuntries America’s principle is the we are inicent until proven guilty. We think its better to let 10 quilty men walk than have one inicent person in jail. In other countries like England you are guilty until proven inicent. Our country would not bring up randoms suits agains people and try to convict them of terrorism. Lets be honest; our country is a little racist when it comes to terrorism. Those random bag checks at the airport are not so random. They stop a hundred middle east guys and them 1 old lady to make it look legit. So I don’t think we need to worry.
Response to Erin:
Dude, wire tapping is a huge deal. As Americans, we have a right to privacy. We don’t want some corrupt government officials listening into our conversations because they can. The government has already taken major precautions into protecting its citizens. If you’ve been in an airport lately, you obviously know what I’m talking about. You can’t bring liquid toiletries through security. Family members can not walk with you to your plane. As a nation, we have already done many things in protecting ourselves, and this act is very unnecessary. Actually, I am kind of disappointed that the democrats are going to attempt to bring this into effect
If this bill does get passed, don’t you think that said terrorists would stop calling here and discussing future terror attacks? This plan is going to cost a lot of money. I mean, a real lot of money. We already spend millions of dollars a year on agencies like the CIA and such. Don’t tell me that they haven’t also stepped up their game since 9/11. The federal budget on the war on terrorism is ridiculously high. How can we truly justify hiring thousands of people to listen into peoples conversations and hope to hear this classified information. Moreover, what, truly, are the chances that we will apprehend said terrorists? I’d say slim to none. The disadvantages of this plan extremely the null out the advantages.