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Help authorities Protect America
by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Published in the San Antonio Express-News January 3, 2008
On Dec. 11, 2007, the director of National Intelligence, Adm. Mike McConnell, made an arresting plea in the editorial pages of the New York Times: "Help Me Spy on al-Qaida."
In an urgent comment, he implored Congress to provide the resources America's intelligence officials need to safeguard our country against terrorism.
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, signaled changes in the kinds of threats posed against the United States, and specifically, the tactics these terrorists use to carry out their violent plots. In today's world, terrorists employ fast-advancing technologies and communications networks to orchestrate and execute attacks. The 9-11 attack depended extensively on wire communications with known terrorist suspects abroad.
During the summer of 2007, Congress passed the Protect America Act, a six-month measure that has temporarily given our national intelligence agencies the tools to quickly detect terrorist activity and other threats to national security and to take measures to thwart these designs.
The act modernized the decades-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. FISA prescribes physical and electronic surveillance of foreign intelligence, but has not been updated to reflect technological progress, such as the proliferation of easily accessible and disposable cell phones.
Time is passing and we've yet to complete comprehensive, permanent legislation to equip our intelligence community with modern and relevant tools to protect America from a smart, agile enemy who harbors no respect for human life.
The Protect America Act allows intelligence officials to more effectively collect foreign intelligence without first having to obtain a court order. The act stipulates that the court order would not be required for targets involving known terrorist suspects reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S. It allows surveillance of specific people — not their telephone lines.
The measure is careful to preserve civil liberties, and lawful, everyday communication between Americans would not be affected.
The outdated and obsolete rules of FISA have mired intelligence officers in writing lengthy legal justifications, calling them away from the critical, time-sensitive task of detecting and tracking terrorist threats. Furthermore, a cell phone being monitored could be thrown away and replaced with a new one before an agent could get court approval; or a phone card bought at the grocery store could be used and disposed of in a matter of minutes.
It is simply impractical to intercept the near-instantaneous information transmitted over cell phones or the Internet when time-consuming court proceedings are required.
To be effective, our counterterrorism efforts must be on the leading edge of technology. The act extends liability protection to private sector partners, such as those in the telecommunications industry, who have assisted intelligence officials in their efforts to detect terrorists.
The Protect America Act enables the intelligence community to detect the kind of terrorist communication that led to the tragedies of 9-11. But this temporary law will expire on Feb. 1. The threat of foreign terrorists will not expire, which is why permanent legislation must be enacted.
In the Senate, responsible and comprehensive legislation has been drafted to bring FISA into the 21st century. The legislation has broad, bipartisan support and has been poised for Senate passage for more than a month. Unfortunately, some in Congress have prevented this from happening. As a result, this vitally important measure will not be taken up again until Congress returns in mid-January, leaving us only seven working days to complete this major legislation before the Protect America Act expires.
We wouldn't dream of sending our troops into battle without the equipment and supplies to carry out their mission safely and successfully. Similarly, we cannot assign the intelligence community with the task of gathering information on our enemies and using it to help keep our nation safe, while placing unreasonable obstructions in their path.
For the safety of all Americans, we cannot put this off any longer. I join our national intelligence community in urging swift and certain action in Congress as soon as we return in January.
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