Civil Liberties Groups Oppose Surveillance Bill

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DON GONYEA, host:

This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Don Gonyea.

RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

And I'm Renee Montagne.

The White House has done an about-face and announced support for legislation that is supposed to place limits on domestic surveillance by the National Security Agency.

Until recently, the administration insisted the president needs no special authorization to conduct warrantless surveillance within the United States if the goal is fighting terrorism. That change of heart has given civil liberties groups one more reason to oppose the legislation that Congress is examining.

NPR's Larry Abramson reports.

LARRY ABRAMSON, reporting:

After months of opposing Congressional meddling in NSA surveillance, three administration officials brought a fresh attitude to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. People like CIA Director Michael Hayden described the current law - the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA - as downright backward.

Mr. MICHAEL HAYDEN (Director, Central Intelligence Agency): Frankly, I don't think anyone can make the claim that the FISA statute was designed to deal with a 9/11, or to deal with a lethal enemy who likely already had armed combatants in the United States.

ABRAMSON: That's why the administration developed a terrorist surveillance program, Hayden said, which allows monitoring of suspected terrorists in the U.S. without any warrant.

Judiciary Chair Arlen Specter has put forward a bill that would ask a special court to rule on whether that program is constitutional. Steven Bradbury, of the Justice Department, praised the bill.

Mr. STEVEN BRADBURY (Acting Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice): This legislation would create, for the first time, an innovative procedure whereby the attorney general will be able to bring such a surveillance program promptly to the FISA court for a judicial determination that it is constitutional and reasonable in compliance with the requirements of the Fourth Amendment.

ABRAMSON: That innovative procedure, however, is optional, and could apply to entire surveillance programs. Right now, the FISA court rules on individual surveillance warrants.

Senator Specter admits he wanted to make judicial oversight mandatory...

Senator ARLEN SPECTER (Republican, Pennsylvania): But I could understand the president's refusal to do that in light of his being unwilling to bind future presidents and make an institutional change.

ABRAMSON: But opponents of the NSA program say the new bill will enshrine what they see as the Bush administration's expansive view of presidential authority.

The administration says the current NSA program only monitors calls where one party is overseas. But Jim Dempsey, of the Center for Democracy and Technology, told Specter that his bill would essentially legalize monitoring of purely domestic calls without a warrant.

Mr. JIM DEMPSEY (Policy Director, Center for Democracy and Technology): That as one civil libertarian to another, Mr. Chairman, let me say that we would rather see the president's unlawful program continue unchecked than to see your bill enacted into law.

ABRAMSON: Other critics of the surveillance program said administration officials only threw their support behind the Specter bill when they were sure it would expand, rather than limit, presidential power.

Senator Patrick Leahy, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, suggested that Chairman Specter had lost his way while negotiating with the White House.

Senator PATRICK LEAHY (Democrat, Vermont): Well, this Vermonter does not believe that we should ever compromise on requiring the executive to submit to the rule of law, no matter who is president. And I'm sad to say that I see the bill less as a compromise and more as a concession.

ABRAMSON: Specter seemed perplexed that he had aroused the ire of Democrats and civil liberties groups by introducing what he sees as a bill to protect civil liberties.

Specter complained yesterday that the bill's critics seem to think that if the president likes something, there must be something wrong with it.

Larry Abramson, NPR News, Washington.

MONTAGNE: And you can learn more about the debate over domestic eavesdropping at npr.org.

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