- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Without debate or notice, U.S. lawmakers on Thursday
approved a proposal long sought by the FBI that would dramatically expand
wiretapping authority -- an idea Congress openly rejected three years ago.
-
- The provision, allowing law enforcement
agencies more easily to tap any telephone used by or near a target individual
instead of getting authorization to tap specific phones, was added to the
Intelligence Authorization Conference report during a closed door meeting
and filed with the House and Senate on Monday.
-
- The conference report was easily adopted
by the House on Wednesday, despite an objection to the wiretapping provision
from Georgia Republican Bob Barr, and by the Senate on Thursday.
-
- Neither the House nor the Senate had
included the provision, known as roving wiretap authority, in their versions
of the intelligence bill. But lawmakers drafting the conference report,
essentially a reconciliation of the two versions, decided to include it.
-
- Civil liberties groups were outraged
by the expanded wiretapping authority and the process of adding the provision
in secret.
-
- "Roving wiretaps are a major expansion
of current government surveillance power," said Alan Davidson, staff
counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington.
-
- "To take a controversial provision
that affects the fundamental constitutional liberties of the people and
pass it behind closed doors shows a shocking disregard for our democratic
process."
-
- FBI officials said they needed to be
able to get roving wiretap authority more easily to catch criminals taking
advantage of new telecommunications technologies.
-
- "This provision is just a refinement
of the existing wiretap statute," said Barry Smith, supervisory special
agent in the FBI's congressional affairs office. "It's just a matter
of ensuring we have the means to effectively pursue these violent criminals
and terrorists."
-
- Under current rules, law enforcement
agencies seeking roving wiretap authority from a judge must prove that
an individual is switching telephones specifically for the purpose of evading
a surveillance. The standard has been difficult to meet and kept the number
of roving wiretaps approved to a minimum, a telephone industry official
said.
-
- Without roving authority, police must
get permission from a judge for each telephone line to be tapped.
-
- Under the change approved this week,
the police would need show only that an individual's "actions could
have the effect of thwarting interception from a specific facility."
-
- The change removed the need to consider
the target's motive in using different telephones.
|
