http://feingold.senate.gov/~feingold/statements/08/06/20080625f.htmThis legislation is going to be remembered as the legislation in which Congress granted the executive branch the power to sweep up all of our international communications with very few controls or oversight.
Mr. President, I’m talking about Title I of the bill, the title that makes substantive changes to the FISA statute. I’d like to explain why I am so concerned about the new surveillance powers granted in this part of the bill, and why the modest improvements made to this part of the bill don’t go far enough.
This part of the bill has been sold to us as necessary to ensure that the government can collect communications between persons overseas without a warrant, and to ensure that the government can collect the communications of terrorists, including their communications with people in the United States. No one disagrees that the government should have this authority. But
this bill goes much further, authorizing widespread surveillance involving innocent Americans – at home and abroad.
First, the FISA Amendments Act, like the Protect America Act, would
authorize the government to collect all communications between the U.S. and the rest of the world. That could mean millions upon millions of communications between innocent Americans and their friends, families, or business associates overseas could legally be collected. Parents calling their kids studying abroad, emails to friends serving in Iraq – all of these communications could be collected, with absolutely no suspicion of any wrongdoing, under this legislation. In fact, the DNI even testified that this type of ‘bulk collection’ would be ‘desirable.’
The bill’s supporters like to say that the government needs additional powers to target terrorists overseas. But under this bill, the government is not limited to targeting foreigners outside the U.S. who are terrorists, or who are suspected of some wrongdoing, or who are members or agents of some foreign government or organization. In fact, the government does not even need a specific purpose for wiretapping anyone overseas. All it needs to have is a general “foreign intelligence” purpose, which is a standard so broad that it covers all international communications. That’s not just my opinion -- the DNI has testified that, under the PAA, and presumably this bill, the
government could legally collect all communications between the United States and overseas. Let me repeat that: under this bill, the government can legally collect all communications – every last one – between Americans here at home and the rest of the world.
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