Published: July 31, 2007 10:09 pm         

Capito pushes warrantless taps on foreign calls

Warrantless wire taps that allow American intelligence agents to eavesdrop on calls placed overseas by foreigners is the thrust of legislation co-sponsored by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

Capito said Tuesday her intent is to upgrade the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to enable the intelligence experts to avert terrorist attacks on American soil while safeguarding citizens’ civil liberties.

“Congress should act immediately on this legislation in order to close the terrorist loophole, strengthen our intelligence and better protect our country,” she said.

Originally, the surveillance law was crafted in 1978 as a means of protecting the civil liberties of Americans while intelligence agents spied on the Soviet Union in the Cold War.

By existing law, agencies must get a warrant before tapping into a phone in this country. Through modern technology, Capito explained, many calls placed internationally to another overseas site are now routed through the United States.

What this means is that homeland security agents must secure a warrant to listen to a known terrorist in Afghanistan if a call is placed to a fellow saboteur in Pakistan.

“Intelligence is vital to our ability to protect our homeland from terror attacks,” Capito said.

“This legislation is critical to ensuring our intelligence community is not hamstrung by a law written nearly 30 years ago to accommodate the technologies of the Cold War.”

In recent testimony, National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell complained the law was inhibiting American agents to spy on terrorists.

“We are actually missing a significant portion of what we should be getting,” he said.

Rather than protect Americans, Capito said, the law in reality is placing an unintended shield around terrorists.

“Our system should be protecting the rights of Americans, not those of overseas terrorists plotting to kill Americans,” she said.

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