US Senate passes wiretap bill, bows to White House pressure
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The Senate on Tuesday gave in to pressure from President George W. Bush's administration and passed a controversial measure authorizing security agencies to tap foreign telephone calls and emails in the US "war on terror."
By a vote of 68 to 29, the Senate passed the bill, which now moves to the House of Representatives and faces stiff opposition from some Democrats.
After heated debate, the Senate authorized the measure offering blanket immunity to telecommunications companies for potential violations of US laws requiring warrants to spy on US citizens -- a notion some lawmakers in the House have resisted.
Bush described the Senate move as a "strong, bipartisan vote in support of legislation that will ensure that our intelligence professionals continue to have the critical tools they need to protect the nation."
The bill "provides a long-term foundation for our intelligence community to monitor the communications of foreign terrorists in ways that are timely and effective and that also protect the liberties of Americans," he said in a statement.
The White House late Tuesday renewed its call that Democratic House leaders bring their bill in line with the one passed in the Senate.
The House version, which Bush has threatened to veto, offers no protection for the telecommunications industry and has more restrictions on the government's power.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called late Tuesday for a swift House vote on the Senate-backed measure.
"The Senate passed a strong, bipartisan bill, and the intelligence community needs this good, long term legislation, not a patchwork of extensions," she said.
"The House is risking national security by delaying action. It's increasingly clear Congress will not act until it has to, and a second extension will only lead to a third. The President will not sign another extension."
The Bush administration insists that the once-secret surveillance program is necessary to monitor communications between suspected terrorists overseas and extremists inside the United States.
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have said it was "urgent" to renew and update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) "immediately and permanently" before a key modification from last year expired this month.
However, Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd described the bill as a "travesty," while his colleague Russell Feingold called the measure "dangerous."
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Bush authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop, without court warrants, on calls and email between the United States and abroad in cases that federal agents deemed may have a terror link.
The program, revealed in 2005, caused public outcry and human rights experts have argued that US privacy guarantees mean the intelligence agencies should seek court warrants to conduct such spying inside the country.
The 30-year-old FISA was amended by Congress last year to make clear the National Security Agency and other intelligence operations were legally empowered to tap into electronic communications when one or more of the targets is in a foreign location, without first obtaining the permission of a special FISA court.
But Congress set a February 1, 2008 expiration date on that legislation, called the Protect America Act. It was later temporarily extended to February 15.
Cheney has said FISA needed a permanent update to address changes in communications technology since it was first put into law in 1978, including empowering intelligence agencies to freely monitor communications between suspects located outside the United States that are routed through infrastructure inside the country.
