home > by publication type > daily analysis > Surveillance Concessions
Email
| Prepared by: | Lionel Beehner |
|---|
Employees of the National Security Agency sit in the Threat Operations Center. (AP/Evan Vucci)
In a sign of the changing winds in Washington, the White House has agreed to hand over classified material to Congress on its secret eavesdropping program. It has also allowed a secret intelligence court, established under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), to monitor its electronic surveillance activity. The program, which entailed “warrantless” wiretapping that previously had circumvented review by courts or Congress, came under heavy criticism from civil liberty groups after its exposure by the New York Times in December 2005.
The Bush administration insists it holds “inherent authority” to gather intelligence from U.S. citizens suspected of having ties to al-Qaeda and other overseas terrorists. In recent congressional testimony, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzalez expressed concern “about the public disclosure that may jeopardize the national security of our country.” The administration’s willingness to work within the FISA system, writes Wendy J. Keefer, formerly a chief of staff in the Justice Department, “should be viewed as an example of the best of government policy development, not the worst.”
But civil libertarians and lawmakers disagree. They say the White House has violated Fourth Amendment protections from illegal search and seizure, not to mention established dangerous precedents concerning separation-of-powers issues. Critics are unsatisfied by the White House’s latest concession because it constitutes only a temporary reprieve: That is, the Bush administration reserves the right to restart the program at any time. It’s “a bit like a bank robber coming into court and arguing that, although he has been sticking up banks for the past half-decade, he has agreed to a temporary halt and therefore he shouldn’t be prosecuted,” writes Professor James Bamford of the University of California-Berkeley in the New York Times.
There are numerous explanations for the Bush administration’s about-face on this issue. The Democrats’ seizure of power in Congress, of course, played an important role. So too did a flurry of legal battles, not only against the U.S. government but also against telecommunications companies accused of illegally handing over private data. Last August, a federal judge in Michigan ruled that the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance program should be halted. If this case were to reach the Supreme Court, some legal experts expect the court would rule against the administration, given its Hamdan decision last summer, in which it sought to rein in executive authority.
The origins of the NSA surveillance program stretch back five years to the immediate aftermath of 9/11. The White House claims Congress granted it widespread powers to execute the war on terror after passing the joint resolution called the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (PDF). Gonzales has argued in the past that FISA is a moldy institution that “does not anticipate a post-September 11 situation.” But like the war in Iraq and the treatment of terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Congress has repeatedly fought for—and now appears to have won—greater oversight to rein in executive authority.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
Global Economy in Crisis
Expert Conversations on World Events
In The Closing of the American Border, Edward Alden goes behind the scenes to tell the story of the Bush administration’s struggle to balance security and openness in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report lays out a thoughtful agenda for U.S. policy toward the Democratic Republic of Congo, arguing that what happens there should matter to the United States--for humanitarian reasons as well as economic and strategic ones.
In this report, CFR Senior Fellow Michael A. Levi analyzes the potential use of deterrence in preventing terrorist groups from acquiring nuclear weapons and recommends a new approach to U.S. declaratory policy, as well as ways to improve U.S. capabilities to determine the sources of terrorist attacks.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
“ Minor League, Major Problems:” Charles Kupchan argues that a league of democracies would not secure cooperation among democracies and would expose the limits of the West's power and legitimacy.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
