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| FISA |
October 02, 2006 |
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Dear Friends,
Intelligence is the first line of defense in the war on terror.
We have disrupted close to a dozen terrorist attacks on the United States since 9/11. Just eight weeks ago, American, British and Pakistani intelligence worked together to disrupt a planned attack on multiple airliners traveling from London to the United States.
Al Qaeda and its affiliates are deadly and determined.
One of the best tools we have to defeat them and disrupt their attacks is to spy on them -- to find out what they are plotting so that we can stop them.
That`s tough to do. Nation-states have governments and standing armies. They are relatively easy to watch. Spying on terrorists is more like tracking a global criminal enterprise that hides in the stream of normal life.
Inside the United States, rules on electronic surveillance or wiretaping to collect intelligence are set out in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The Act allows our intelligence agencies to spy on foreign agents in the United States or agents communicating into and out of the United States while protecting the civil liberties of ordinary Americans.
Last December, after a report in the New York Times, the President acknowledged that a highly secret surveillance program exists to intercept the international communications of people communicating with known al Qaeda terrorists overseas. While the program had been briefed to bipartisan leaders in the Congress, I believed that further oversight was required. Along with other rank-and-file members of the Intelligence Committees, I demanded full information from the executive branch.
After conducting hearings, site visits and extensive discussions with the people operating these programs, I came to the conclusion that we needed to update our electronic surveillance laws so that we can protect Americans from terrorists trying to kill us while putting in place clear rules of the road to protect the civil liberties of ordinary Americans.
In July, I introduced a bill to modernize our wiretapping laws and on Thursday it passed the House of Representatives.
The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution guarantees us the right to be secure from unreasonable searches and seizures.
The Constitution establishes an important test: reasonableness. What is reasonable in wartime when a foreign power attacks our nation? What is reasonable immediately after a terrorist attack, or right before one that our intelligence community has uncovered?
During World War II we routinely collected international communications from all Americans. We have intercepted the international mail and monitored telegraph lines during wartime.
I believe it is reasonable to listen to people reasonably believed to be communicating with known al Qaeda operatives overseas or with someone who intends to attack this country if an attack is imminent. When thwarting a terrorist attack, I want to listen NOW. Not after delays and paperwork, not after waking the U.S. Attorney General in the middle of the night, but right now, before it is too late. That is reasonable.
To protect us from tyranny, the founding fathers established a system of checks and balances in our government, a system that has served us well for more than two centuries.
My bill involves all three branches of government with a series of checks and balances to protect the civil liberties of ordinary Americans from excesses that can happen over time when power is concentrated in a single branch of government. We have time limits, reasonableness tests, notification requirements, stronger congressional oversight, and various reviews written into the law.
Seniority in the House matters. While I have passed important legislation and amendments in the House for New Mexico, this is really the first time I have led the House on an issue of national importance in an area where I have responsibility to lead.
Good to be home,
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