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Augusta Chronicle: House's failure to pass needed intelligence bill puts America at risk
By U.S. Senator Saxby Chambliss
March 2, 2008
As a member of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, I have been a strong advocate for improving our intelligence capabilities in order to keep our nation safe. As policymakers, we have a responsibility to ensure that America has the most up to date tools in place to monitor terrorist activity and to close any loopholes that might be created as the times change.
In 1978, Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law which governs our collection and analysis of terrorist and spy communications. FISA has played a critical role in allowing our intelligence operators to identify and monitor our enemies. Since 9-11, FISA has helped to detect and disrupt terrorist attacks not just here at home, but on our troops in the field and on our allies abroad as well.
When FISA was enacted, it was intended to safeguard the privacy rights of individuals within the borders of the United States by requiring a court order prior to conducting any surveillance. However, as our world has become smaller and technology and communications capabilities have advanced, the original FISA law has become outdated, and has left our intelligence community with a collection gap. At the same time, terrorist organizations such as al-Qaida have adapted and become more sophisticated.
ALL OF A SUDDEN, our intelligence agencies were required to obtain court orders to collect the communications of foreign terrorists located overseas who were communicating with individuals overseas -- for example, a call placed from a terrorist in Iraq to a terrorist in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Requiring analysts to seek court orders for foreign individuals overseas greatly handicaps their ability to assess and task new collection in real time, and as a consequence, valuable intelligence is missed.
Congress provided a temporary fix to fill this intelligence gap in August 2007, but for these very reasons Congress needs to make permanent changes to the FISA law and implement a long term bill to keep our nation safe. The U.S. Senate finally did its part in recently passing a bill with a strong bipartisan vote of 68-29. However, the Democratic leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives failed to take action on the Senate bill prior to adjourning and allowed the temporary fix to expire Feb. 16.
Several dozen Democrats, along with the Republicans in the House support the Senate legislation. Why, then, would Democratic leaders refuse to follow the Senate in holding a vote on this legislation when the majority supports it? Their actions simply defy common sense. More so, it is irresponsible and our nation is now without vital tools to detect and defend against attacks targeted at Americans until Congress passes this legislation. The director of national intelligence and the attorney general said recently that "we have lost intelligence information this past week as a direct result of the uncertainty created by Congress' failure to act." The same gaps we had in August are resurfacing now and it has had a real and negative impact on our national security.
The longer Congress delays, the more we may lose vital intelligence collection and critical assistance from the private sector. The Democratic leaders in the House do not believe Congress should provide liability relief to America's telecommunication companies for their alleged assistance in the president's Terrorist Surveillance Program following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks---a provision included in the Senate bill. The Senate debated this extensively and voted against amendments that would prohibit this relief.
AFTER CAREFUL review of classified documents, intelligence, legal memorandum, and testimony related to the president's TSP program, the Senate Intelligence Committee determined "that electronic communication service providers acted on a good faith belief that the president's program, and their assistance, was lawful."
In fact, our committee concluded that granting liability relief to the telecommunications providers was not only warranted, but required to maintain the regular assistance our intelligence and law enforcement professionals seek from them.
The federal government often needs assistance from the private sector to protect our national security as well as for law enforcement purposes. What incentive would an American company have to assist the federal government in protecting our nation if it thought it would be subjected to lawsuits for its actions? No company would be willing to help, and who could blame them?
Carriers should be able to rely on the government's assurances that the assistance they provide is lawful and necessary for our security, and that they will not be subjected to costly legal battles. Further, Americans should not bear the costs of these lawsuits through higher telephone and Internet bills.
I know our hard-working intelligence analysts working at Fort Gordon directly understand how critical this legislation is. When it comes to protecting our homeland and preventing terrorist attacks against Americans, the leaders of Congress must put partisanship aside. Each day Congress delays, our national security becomes more in jeopardy.
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