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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 14, 2008
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Contact: Zach Goldberg
202-225-5801 (office) |
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HOLT: INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY WON’T 'GO DARK' IF
UNCONSTITUTIONAL “PROTECT AMERICA ACT” EXPIRES
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(Washington, D.C.) – Rep. Rush Holt (NJ-12), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, today disputed President Bush’s fearful warning that the intelligence community will “go dark” if the “Protect America Act” expires. The intelligence community will still have all the tools it needs to continue current surveillance and begin new surveillance on any terrorist threat, Holt said.
“The only way our intelligence collection against Al Qaeda will ‘go dark’ is if President Bush doesn’t pay the FBI’s and NSA’s phone bills,” Holt said.
According to a January report from the Department of Justice’s Inspector General, telecommunication surveillance payments have not been made on time and “have resulted in telecommunications carriers actually disconnecting phone lines established to deliver surveillance results to the FBI, resulting in lost evidence including an instance where delivery of intercept information required by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) order was halted due to untimely payment.”
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