Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Cheney wants surveillance law expanded

Cheney wants surveillance law expanded
Vice President Cheney Prods Congress to Act Soon on Surveillance Law Due
to Expire Feb. 1
TOM RAUM
AP News
Jan 23, 2008 15:34 EST
Vice President Dick Cheney prodded Congress on Wednesday to extend and
broaden an expiring surveillance law, saying "fighting the war on terror
is a long-term enterprise" that should not come with an expiration date.
"We're reminding Congress that they must act now," Cheney told the
Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. The law, which authorizes
the administration to eavesdrop on phone calls and see the e-mail to and
from suspected terrorists, expires on Feb. 1. Congress is bickering over
terms of its extension.
On Tuesday, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid to extend the stopgap Protect America Act without expanding it,
raising stakes for an expected showdown in the Senate later this week on a
new version of the law.
"This cause is bigger than the quarrels of party and the agendas of
politicians," Cheney said. "And if we in Washington, all of us, can only
see our way clear to work together, then the outcome should not be in
doubt."
Congress hastily adopted the stopgap act last summer in the face of
warnings from the administration about dangerous gaps in the government's
ability to gather intelligence in the Internet age.
Administration allies in Congress not only want the expiring law made
permanent but amended to give telephone companies and other communications
providers immunity from being sued for helping the government
eavesdropping and other intelligence-gathering efforts.
Cheney said such providers "face dozens of lawsuits."
"The intelligence community doesn't have the facilities to carry out the
kind of international surveillance needed to defend this country since
9-11. In some situations, there is no alternative to seeking assistance
from the private sector. This is entirely appropriate," Cheney said.
At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino defended the proposal to
protect phone companies from liability. "These are companies who helped
their country right after 9-11," she said. She also criticized Democratic
plans for a one-month extension of the current law. "Look, there's been
six months to hash out the differences. Actually, there's been a whole
year-and-a-half worth ... And there was robust debate, a hearty debate
back in August when we got the bill that we have now."
At the heart of the controversy is whether the government's wireless
surveillance program violated provisions of the original FISA law that
requires warrants for wiretaps whenever one of the parties involved in the
communication resides in the United States.
Cheney also said the administration "feels strongly that an updated FISA
law should be made permanent, not merely extended again. ... There is no
sound reason to pass critical legislation like the Protect America Act and
slap an expiration date on it."
Reid plans to bring to the Senate floor on Thursday competing versions of
the legislation.
If a bill is not approved then, Reid said he would require the Senate to
work through the weekend to get a bill passed.
The original FISA law requires the government to get permission from a
special court to listen in on the phone calls and e-mails of people in the
United States. Changes in communications technology mean many purely
foreign to foreign communications now pass through the United States and
therefore require the government to get court orders to intercept them.
The Protect America Act, adopted in August, eased that restriction.
Privacy and civil liberties advocates say it went too far, giving the
government far more power to eavesdrop on American communications without
court oversight.
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 is a long-term enterprise"
ecco, ha detto bene, è un IMPRESA a lungo termine...chi ha orecchie
intenda...