Please find below an example of UPI's continuing coverage of the president's program of warrantless counter-terrorist surveillance, published yesterday. A shorter version appeared on A9 of this morning's edition of the Washington Times. I hope you find it interesting. You may link to it on the Web here:
http://www.upi.com/inc/view.php?StoryID=20060327-030420-7157r If you would like more information about UPI's Security and Terrorism service, or to stop receiving these alerts, please get in touch. Shaun Waterman UPI Homeland and National Security Editor E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Tel: 202 898 8081 Intel committee sidelined on warrantless wire-tapping laws By SHAUN WATERMAN UPI Homeland and National Security Editor WASHINGTON, March 27 (UPI) -- The chairman of the powerful Senate Select Committee on Intelligence believes congressional officials were mistaken to refer a bill dealing with the president's program of warrantless counter-terrorism surveillance to a rival panel. "Chairman (Pat) Roberts's (R-Kan.) strong position is that this decision was incorrect," said a senior committee staffer, who asked not to be named. In practice, the decision will limit the input the committee will have on the final shape of legislation. The Senate Parliamentarian, a little-known but influential official who makes decisions about the legislative procedure for Senate bills, referred the bill -- S2455, GOP Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine's Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006 -- to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, after a great deal of behind-the-scenes negotiations, according to other senate aides. The judiciary committee, which is also working on a very different bill dealing with the program drafted by its Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Penn., plans a hearing Tuesday on the issue. Judges from the secret court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, will testify. Specter's proposal would give the court authority over the program -- which officials have said monitors communications into and out of the United States where one party to the call is suspected of links to al-Qaida or other terrorist group. Observers said that because it gives the FISA court this role, the referral of Specter's bill to the judiciary panel was a relatively straightforward call. But the DeWine bill gives authority and oversight over the program to the intelligence committee, and the decision to refer it elsewhere has left some baffled. "This is a piece of legislation about an intelligence activity, carried out by an intelligence agency, and where the only group of people fully briefed are members of an intelligence committee sub-committee and we didn't get referral," said the intelligence committee staffer. The sub-committee, announced earlier this month by Roberts, has been fully briefed on the program and has visited the National Security Agency's Ft. Mead, Md., headquarters, from which it is run. The sub-committee, along with the program it was set up to oversee, would be given legislative approval by the bill, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Chuck Hegel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of Maine and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. A spokesman for DeWine said that the referral was a matter for the parliamentarian and the Senate leadership. "They work with the sponsors, but it is not our decision," said the senator's Communications Director Mike Dawson. The parliamentarian's office referred press inquiries to the office of the Senate secretary. No one from that office or the office of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., returned phone calls requesting comment. In practice, the referral means that members and staff of the intelligence committee will have only a short time to work on whatever proposal emerges from Specter's panel -- 10 days, according to committee staff. And the intelligence committee's influence over the final shape of the bill the Senate will vote on may also be limited in other ways by the chamber's arcane parliamentary rules. And that is significant because some on the intelligence committee -- though they would not speak for the record -- say important changes need to be made to the DeWine bill. Most controversially, they believe the bill should authorize the use of this new surveillance tool to protect the country against threats other than terrorism. The DeWine bill would create a list of terrorist organizations designated by the president. Anyone that the government has probable cause to believe may be "an agent or member ... affiliated with ... or working in support of" one of those groups is liable to be wiretapped. "Why restrict it to terrorist groups?" pondered one committee insider. "There are criminal organizations or nation states that might also pose a serious enough threat to warrant inclusion." The bill mandates a review of the program by the Attorney General every 45 days, as at present. But some are fretting that the reviews -- which require a certification for each wiretap -- will create an undue administrative burden. They argue that the trade-off for the more thorough review process, which culminates in a case-by-case certification to the sub-committee by the attorney general, ought to be more time between reviews. Finally, some believe that the bill raises the bar too high for deciding who can be tapped. Currently, officials have said that the president's program authorizes surveillance on those they have "a reasonable basis to believe" might be working for or with terrorists. The bill would raise that test to the "probable cause." (c) Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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