[wordup] Politicians weigh even more surveillance powers, by Ted Bridis

[Adam Shand]

it just gets worse and worse. adam.

Via: politech at politechbot.com
From: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Terror-Laws.html

New Surveillance Measures Considered
November 29, 2001

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:33 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Just weeks after approving powerful new anti-terrorism
laws, some lawmakers already are considering giving the government new
police powers to make it easier to obtain special wiretaps and search
warrants usually reserved for finding foreign spies.

The new changes would allow government agents to secretly request wiretaps
even if details about the target of the surveillance, such as his identity
or the location of his phone, aren't known. They also would allow agents
to make broader demands for most business records, as long as the
documents were related to an investigation.

Another change, which lawmakers considered but rejected on Wednesday,
would have permitted the United States to invoke a powerful anti-espionage
law even in cases against individual foreigners. That law is currently
reserved for cases against people working as spies for foreign governments
or other foreign organizations.

A fourth change, still under consideration, would give the government up
to three days to seek a judge's approval for warrants after investigators
conduct a search or wiretap in emergencies. The government currently must
obtain a judge's permission after 24 hours.

The changes, under consideration by House and Senate members working on
the intelligence bill that would set the budget for the CIA, would affect
a powerful 1978 anti-espionage law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act. Under that law, a secret U.S. court considers requests for searches
or wiretaps, and these generally require a lower standard of proof for
approval than in traditional criminal cases.

The Justice Department characterized the changes being sought as narrow,
technical amendments to the surveillance act. House and Senate oversight
committees had urged intelligence agencies and the Justice Department to
suggest changes to the law, according to people familiar with the process.
Five proposals, including the one lawmakers rejected, came from Justice
lawyers.

``It is perfectly normal that committees will reach out to executive
agencies for input about changes they want to make and language that
facilitates that,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said. ``In
this case, the intelligence committees reached out to the Justice
Department for technical guidance.''

Civil liberties groups cautioned that the changes were substantive and
considerably broadened police powers.

``This is a significant expansion of electronic surveillance in the United
States,'' said Jerry Berman, head of the Washington-based Center for
Democracy and Technology. ``It's only been a month or so, and they're
already asking for expansions.''

The change rejected by lawmakers would have allowed the surveillance law
to be used against ``a foreign individual,'' according to draft language
by the Justice Department, which was obtained Thursday by The Associated
Press. Justice lawyers wrote that otherwise restricting use of the
espionage law ``limits the ability of the president to use this statute
against ... hijackers or other terrorists without affiliation or known
affiliation with a specific group or foreign state.''

People familiar with the considerations, speaking only on condition of
anonymity, said lawmakers considered the change too substantive to be
included among technical amendments and decided Wednesday afternoon not to
consider it further, at least until next year.

Another change would add the phrase ``if known'' to the requirement for
wiretap approvals of identifying the location of a target's electronic
communications. Justice lawyers said the change would be useful in cases
of wireless telephones or e-mail accounts, ``where the facility to be
monitored is typically not known in advance.''

Reacting to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress under the new Patriot
Act gave government agents broad new powers to detain immigrants,
eavesdrop on telephone calls and e-mails and share sensitive details of
criminal investigations with the CIA.

President Bush signed the Patriot Act on Oct. 26.

Among other things, the law permits U.S. prosecutors to invoke the
anti-espionage law even when the primary focus of their investigation
isn't spying by a foreign government. It also makes it legal for
investigators to pass sensitive information about criminal cases to
intelligence agencies.

The intelligence bill, which is largely classified, provides funding and
some policy guidance to the 13 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the
CIA and the National Security Agency. Its total amount is secret but
thought to be around $30 billion annually. The House and Senate have
already passed separate versions of the bill, which contain large
increases for the agencies.