House Approves Warrantless Wiretapping Extension

An anonymous reader writes "The House of Representatives voted 227-183 to update the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to allow warrantless wiretapping of telephone and electronic communications. The vote extends the FISA amendment for six months. 'The administration said the measure is needed to speed the National Security Agency's ability to intercept phone calls, e-mails and other communications involving foreign nationals "reasonably believed to be outside the United States." Civil liberties groups and many Democrats said it goes too far, possibly enabling the government to wiretap U.S. residents communicating with overseas parties without adequate oversight from courts or Congres.'"

Comments

Re:huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, thanks Democrats. Bush threatens to take away your summer vacation and you just completely cave. I'm so glad you were elected.

Re:Up to 72 hours later.

[daveschroeder]

I'm not ignoring anything.

The 72 hours later bit for FISA is irrelevant.

This unnecessarily saddles foreign intelligence gathering, which has never required a warrant for good reason, with warrant requirements.

Again, see this article for a brief overview of the issues.

Monitoring this kind of traffic should not require a warrant process of any kind, period. It flies in the face of the method and purpose of foreign signals intelligence. It's that simple. You can refuse to understand that if you wish.