Wiretapping program gets a 6-month reprieve

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

Even though the Democrats are now in charge, President Bush has not lost his ability to strong- arm Congress into passing national-security legislation against its better judgment.

By threatening to keep Congress in emergency session during its August vacation, he stampeded the lawmakers into an 11th-hour rewrite of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law governing national-security eavesdropping.

The rewrite, which expires in six months, temporarily ratifies the Bush administration's decision to ignore FISA but gives the government expanded powers to conduct warrantless wiretapping.

Previously, the National Security Agency was supposed to obtain warrants from a secret FISA court to eavesdrop on communications between the United States and overseas. In January, that court reaffirmed that the administration did indeed have to get warrants.

Now the authority to approve wiretaps rests with the attorney general - hardly a reassuring prospect given Alberto Gonzales' performance in that office - and the director of national intelligence. The FISA court's role has been limited only to reviewing the procedures under which the attorney general and intelligence director make their decisions and not the individual cases.

Given the administration's expansive view of its own powers, this FISA rewrite could allow much wider eavesdropping, with little outside oversight.