Congressman Lewis supports overhaul of surveillance law
Congressman Jerry Lewis issued a press release Friday declaring his support for the most significant revision of federal surveillance laws in 30 years.
Crucially, the bill extends legal immunity to the phone companies that took part in President Bush's warrantless eavesdropping program beginning in 2001.
On balance, the bill looks like it would mean expansion of government surveillance powers and a victory for the Bush Administration.
Click below for Lewis' press release ...
Passage of Intelligence Bill Will Help Prevent Another September 11, Lewis Says
WASHINGTON - Congressman Jerry Lewis strongly supported passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) renewal Friday, saying America desperately needs a fully-developed intelligence capability to prevent future terrorist attacks.
"America learned a number of things on 9/11/2001, most importantly that we need our intelligence communities to have every tool possible to protect us," said Lewis, the senior Republican member of the House Appropriations Committee. "The terrorists in the world want to destroy our way of life, and we need to know where they are and what they are planning.
"One of the most important intelligence capabilities is to be able to listen in on people who are known terrorists when they communicate with people inside the United States," Lewis said. "This capability has been severely restricted nearly a year while Congress debated this legislation, and passage of this bill will unquestionably make us safer."
The bi-partisan compromise legislation approved Friday reinforces the ability of intelligence communities to monitor electronic information sources. It includes strong protections of civil liberties for U.S. citizens, while at the same time allowing for quick action when a need arises to monitor communications outside the country, Lewis said.
The compromise bill approved Friday:
Requires federal district courts to dismiss civil actions against those who provided assistance to the intelligence community after the September 11th attacks under certain conditions: The Attorney General must certify that the assistance came after a written request or directive showing the activity was authorized by the President and lawful. This will limit frivolous lawsuits against telecommunications companies that cooperated with investigators after the September 11 attacks, but allow courts to review the record on the matter, Lewis said.
Provides for FISA court review of future surveillance authorizations and federal district court review of civil liability determinations. For the first time, the bill also provides for federal court review of surveillance directed at U.S. persons in foreign countries, whether the surveillance is conducted in the United States or abroad, Lewis said.
Permit the initiation of new foreign surveillance without a court order when critical intelligence would be lost or not timely collected, and provides a process for federal court review of such surveillance after the fact. In less urgent circumstances, the bill provides a mechanism for court review of new intelligence collection certifications directed at foreign targets in foreign countries.
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Andrew Edwards. E-mail Andrew here.
So removing all accountability and legal restraint will keep us safe from future terrorist attacks? The principles behind the constitution is all we have left to remind us of the things we all once hoped for. Endowing politicians with increased powers in the name of security has proven to be a major mistake. All that has been accomplished is we've leant our consent to the weakening of a privatized federal government which is incapable of preventing the continued dismantling of the constitution, laws and principles of a decent society. Who's ideal of security is this? I suppose you would expect us heap praise upon this plan to endow you (Congressman Lewis) with this kind of authority to the detriment of all. Is this your ideal of freedom and liberty?
Do you and your confederates propose we sacrifice the remainder of our freedom in exchange for protection? Even though the enemy of which you speak is us?
If we allow this to occur, we will have to write history anew for all that has been will have been for naught? How do you then justify the notion of democracy in the dark corridors of the world? How then will you sell the ideal of a brighter future to our youth?
Shall we laugh in the face of past failure and forget the contributions of all those who paved the way for our success. Would you simply wipe away the blood and sacrifices of our heros past and present to hide a criminal intent?
Politicians are comfortable telling us what we need or should desire but the truth of the matter is they have no ideal what the common man and woman needs or wants? They fail to acknowledge that we are America.
What “America desperately needs,” are politicians who realize they are the representatives of the people and not mini-dictators. What America needs are elected officials who get back to the business of instituting policies which reflect the desires of the silenced majority and not the whims of voluble minority. What America needs is to purge the system of the traitors, opportunists, isolationists, extremists, lunatics, and radical idealists who are hell bent on reshaping the world into a place they can safely dominate and exploit without opposition.
America doesn’t need new surveillance laws to help “us” identify and locate the “terrorists in the world who want to destroy our way of life.” Americans realize representatives like yourself are the gravest threat to “our way of life.” The adoption and promotion of morally and socially repugnant policies which reflect a desire to transform the home of the free and the brave into a dwelling place for the greedy and depraved illustrate this quite clearly. The proposal of laws which demonstrate the backward and cowardly nature of those presently in charge is a much greater threat to “our way of life,” than some angry, malnourished, uneducated, unemployed third world dweller displaced from his native land for whatever reason the rich and influential deem appropriate.
Certainly the greatest threats we face are internal. The ideals which say all people are worthy of suspicion and war is the answer to all disputes both real and imagined is the greatest threat yet faced.
Ty,
Nice arguments.
Robert