[NYTr] BUSH CALLS FOR EASIER WIRETAP RULES

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by MichaelP (activ-l)

[Of course -- if YOU are not a terrorist YOU need not be afraid of
being considered to be a terror suspect, and YOU NEED have no fear of 
how they might construe your private communications.

Don't YOU understand that only terrorists suggest using impeachment
as a weapon against the U$A? MP]


AFP via Yahoo - Jul 29, 2007
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070729/twl-us-attacks-intelligence-4bdc673.html


BUSH CALLS FOR EASIER WIRETAP RULES

Agence France Presse

WASHINGTON  (AFP)  -  - US President George W. Bush on Saturday called
for Congress to revise a US security law in order to ease restrictions
on  the government's  secret  communications  surveillance  of terror
suspects.

Amid  furor  over  Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's handling of the 
government's   secret   warrantless   wiretap   program,   Bush  urged 
legislators  to  pass  the  update  of  the  1978 Foreign Intelligence 
Surveillance Act (FISA) proposed in April.

The  changes  would  ease  intelligence  collection  aimed  at  people 
plotting  attacks  on the United States, Bush said in his weekly radio 
address.

"Today we face sophisticated terrorists who use disposable cell phones
and the  Internet to communicate with each other, recruit operatives,
and plan attacks on our country," he said.

"Technologies  like  these  were  not  available  when FISA was passed 
nearly  30  years ago, and FISA has not kept up with new technological 
developments.

"As  a result, our nation is hampered in its ability to gain the vital 
intelligence we need to keep the American people safe."

Bushed  urged  lawmakers  to  work  in a bipartisan manner to pass the 
legislation  before  leaving  for August recess, saying: "Our national 
security depends on it."

Bush  made  the  plea  as  Gonzales  became  more  mired  this week in 
accusations  that  the  government  abused  the law to monitor suspect 
electronic  communications to and from the United States without first 
obtaining warrants from a special secret FISA court.

On  Thursday members of Congress called for a perjury investigation of 
Gonzales  for  testimony  he  gave  days  earlier  on  the warrantless 
wiretaps, which were launched when Gonzales was White House Counsel.

The  FISA  reform  proposed  by  the White House in April would loosen 
restrictions   on   tapping   into   emails,  phone  calls  and  other 
communications  inside the country and possibly allow the US to freely
tap into  international  communications  routed  through  the  United
States.

It will also protect telecommunications companies who cooperate in the 
effort.  Several  major  companies have been sued for helping with the 
wiretaps.

But  Congress has resisted the reform while demanding more information
on the  government's  electronic spying efforts since 2001, which the
White House  and  Gonzales  have  insisted were legal, but others say
broke the law.

This  week Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller offered apparently 
contradictory  testimony on a 2004 Justice Department dispute over the 
program's  legality,  sparking  accusations  that Gonzales lied to the 
legislators about the controversy.

Bush  did  not address the Gonzales controversy in his address, but on 
Friday  White  House spokesman Tony Snow said: "The president supports
him and the president supports his performance."