Domestic Spy Rights For DOD, CIA?
A proposal to give the CIA and Department of Defense much broader powers in gathering intelligence on American citizens reportedly was defeated in a closed-door session on Capitol Hill Thursday.
The New York Times reports the proposal, backed by the Bush administration and leading Senate Republicans, was part of a broader intelligence funding bill now pending before Congress.
It appeared it would have greatly expanded the role of the CIA and Pentagon in conducting domestic operations, loosening present restrictions. The two agencies would have had the power to require Internet providers, credit card companies, libraries and others to produce materials like phone records, bank transactions and e-mail logs.
Sources told The Times that California Democrat Dianne Feinstein and others were successful in getting the provision removed from the authorization bill, but the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, indicated that he wants to hold further hearings on the idea.
Some sources said Roberts inserted the plan into the bill, while others said the Bush administration had initiated it, although Roberts did not object.
The FBI now has primary responsibility for domestic intelligence operations, and at present, the CIA and Defense Department must go to the FBI to request a "national security letter" to get access to financial and electronic records.
The administration feels that giving the CIA and military direct authority to demand the records would cut down on the time needed for investigations and provide more flexibility in the war against terrorism, according to a senior Congressional official.
Administration officials said the proposal would not give the CIA and DOD access to any information they cannot already get through the FBI, while an American Civil Liberties Union official called the proposal "dangerous and un-American.
"Even in the most frigid periods of the Cold War, we never gave the CIA such sweeping and secret policing powers over American citizens," said Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the ACLU.
Democrats and civil liberties advocates say the FBI is subject to guidelines and judicial oversight that would not apply to the CIA and Department of Defense.
The government disclosed Thursday it requested and won approval for a record 1,228 warrants last year for secret wiretaps and searches of suspected terrorists and spies, a reflection of aggressive efforts to prevent terror attacks in the United States.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft disclosed the figures in a mandatory, two-paragraph report to the administrative office of the U.S. courts. Last year's total was significantly higher than the 934 warrants approved in 2001 and the 1,003 approved in 2000.
The FBI often uses these specialized warrants - issued under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act - to record the telephone calls and e-mails of citizens and immigrants believed to be agents of a foreign power.