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ACLU Condemns Senate for Passing Spy Law Changes

by via ACLU
Saturday, August 4, 2007 : WASHINGTON – The American Civil Liberties Union today condemned the House and Senate for bowing to pressure from the Bush administration and rushing to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The administration lobbied heavily to alter the legislation before Congress recessed. The White House pushed for sweeping changes to the spy law after a FISA court judge recently rejected its use of wide-scale, untargeted surveillance. The bill was passed in the Senate by a vote of 60 to 28, and the House is poised to take up the same legislation late tonight.
“We are deeply disappointed that the president’s tactics of fearmongering have once again forced Congress into submission,” said Anthony Romero, executive director of the ACLU. “That a Democratically-controlled Senate would be strong-armed by the Bush administration is astonishing. This Congress may prove to be as spineless in standing up to the Bush Administration as the one that enacted the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act.”

The legislation that passed would allow for the intelligence agencies to intercept – without a court order – the calls and emails of Americans who are communicating with people abroad, and puts authority for doing so in the hands of the attorney general. No protections exist for Americans whose calls or emails are vacuumed up, leaving it to the executive branch to collect, sort, and use this information as it sees fit.

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§Congress yields to Bush on spying
by Al Jazeera (reposted)
Sunday, August 5, 2007 : Votes to expand surveillance without warrants on foreign suspects for six months.

The Democratic-led US Congress has yielded to George Bush, the president, and approved legislation to temporarily expand the government's power to conduct electronic surveillance to track foreign suspects without a court order. Civil liberties groups charge that the measure will cast a broad net that would sweep up law-abiding US citizens.

The House of Representatives on Saturday gave its assent to the bill, 227-183, a day after it won approval in the Senate by 60-28. The temporary powers give Congress time to draw up a more comprehensive plan instead of rushing approval for a permanent bill before congressional recess.

'Loophole'

John Boehner, House minority leader and Ohio Republican representative, said: "After months of prodding by House Republicans, congress has finally closed the terrorist loophole in our surveillance law - and America will be the safer for it."

Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, stated opposition to the bill, saying: "We think it is not the bill that ought to pass."

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§Senate Approves Warrantless Spying
by IOL (reposted)
CAIRO — The US Senate has approved a bill that would allow US intelligence agencies to intercept phone calls and e-mails of people in the United States who are communicating with people overseas without court warrants, sparking quick diatribe from privacy advocacy groups, reported the Washington Post on Saturday, August 4.

"We're at war. The enemy wants to attack us," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman "This is not the time to strive for legislative perfection."

The motion was passed by a 60-28 vote. Sixteen Democrats along with independent Lieberman joined all 43 Republicans in supporting the measure, which is nearly identical to a proposal prepared by the Bush administration.

The new bill would allow intelligence agencies to intercept phone calls and e-mails by people residing in the US to overseas without court orders.

Currently, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires intelligence agencies to obtain a court warrant for intercepting communications.

The legislation will "give our intelligence professionals the essential tools they need to protect our nation," said White House spokesman Tony Fratto.

Fratto urged the House of Representatives, which is expected to discuss the bill later Saturday, to approve the draft.

The House Democrats have failed to make changes to the White House's bill to ensure closer court supervision of government surveillance.

Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid opposed the bill in its current form.

"My Republican colleagues chose to rubber-stamp a flawed administration proposal that fails to provide the accountability needed in the light of the administration's past mismanagement of key tools in the war on terror," he said.

Bush has threatened to hold Congress in session into its scheduled summer recess if the legislature failed to approve the changes he wanted.

If signed into law, the Senate bill would expire in six months. During that period, Congress would seek to write permanent legislation.

"NSA is Listening"

Privacy advocates lashed out at the Senate move, saying the measure will give the Bush administration more excessive powers than it had under the secret wiretapping program.

"Whenever the president says the word 'terrorism,' they (Democrats) roll over and play dead," said Caroline Fredrickson, Washington legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

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