President Pushes To Revise Wiretap Law

(AP)  As debate continues over the legality of President Bush's domestic spying program, the administration pressed Congress on Wednesday to ease decades-old surveillance restrictions to catch up to the technology of the Internet age.

But Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee countered that legislation updating the 1978 law covering such monitoring — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — is tilted too far in favor of Bush, since it would also award a secret court jurisdiction to determine whether the current program is legal.

They argue that updating the law is a secondary concern since the White House claims its ongoing surveillance operations in the war on terror are not bound by it.

Technological advances and a shift in adversaries from Cold War rivals to terrorists mean the FISA law is now behind the times, CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden told the panel.

For starters, the existing law covers telephone and e-mail traffic that are routed through the United States, but which begin and end overseas.

As part of a deal with Bush to submit his warrantless wiretapping program for court review, the Republican-controlled committee is considering updating the FISA law. The administration monitors international calls and e-mails of Americans if terrorism is suspected.

"Congress did not anticipate the technological revolution that would bring us global high-speed fiber-optic networks, the Internet, e-mail and disposable cell phones," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Steven Bradbury.

But tinkering with the law brings into play the larger question of whether the administration is violating constitutional protections against illegal searches by permitting electronic spying in the United States without a judge-approved search warrant.

The administration has argued that the ongoing surveillance program, revealed by The New York Times in December, is exempt from the restrictions of the FISA law.

It argues that a 2002 law giving Bush authority to use military force against Saddam Hussein also gave him authority to conduct the warrantless wiretapping program without obtaining permission from a secret FISA court established by the 1978 law. Considerable controversy has followed, with Democrats and some Republicans arguing that the administration is openly breaking the law.

"Whether or not FISA is in need of fine-tuning is a legitimate consideration, but FISA's possible imperfections provide no excuse for the administration's flouting of existing law," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the panel.

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