The on-again, off-again debate over the Bush administration’s surveillance powers is, with Congress soon returning to work, on again. And with it, comes White House demagoguery.
As readers no doubt recall, Congress approved a FISA revision — called, believe it or not, the “Protect America Act” — last fall, but given how tilted it was in the Bush administration’s direction, Dems put an expiration date on the legislation. It’s set to expire on Feb. 1, and one of the main sticking points is whether lawmakers would grant retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that cooperated with Bush’s warrantless-surveillance scheme.
Democratic leaders are open to a compromise, including a one-month extension of the status quo, while the White House wants it all, now, permanently. Like clockwork, the Bush gang is doing what it always does at this point in the process: rely on fear.
Spokesman Tony Fratto told Congressional Quarterly yesterday that without the immediate passage of legislation, “terrorists” will soon “be free to make phone calls without fear of being surveilled”:
“We’re exactly three weeks away,” he said, “from the date when terrorists can be free to make phone calls without fear of being surveilled by U.S. intelligence agencies”.
First, Fratto’s comments might sound far more compelling if the administration hadn’t put its own surveillance program in jeopardy by failing to pay its telephone bills. (Indeed, let’s not forget that the Justice Department found that at least one FISA investigation — highly secretive and sensitive cases that allow eavesdropping on suspected terrorists or spies — was “halted due to untimely payment.”)
Second, Fratto, who was speaking on behalf of the president, apparently doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Fratto’s contention is flat-out misleading. As CQ’s Keith Perine notes, “intelligence agents would not be instantly hobbled if the law were to expire Feb. 1.” In fact, surveillance authorizations would still “remain in effect until a year after they were issued”:
“The existing law allows the National Intelligence director and the attorney general to authorize surveillance aimed at people outside the United States — even if they are communicating with people inside the country — for up to one year, subject to some conditions.”
Even after Feb. 1, any such surveillance authorizations would remain in effect until a year after they were issued.
Given this, People for the American Way called Fratto’s comments “a bold-faced lie.”
I sometimes wonder if the White House ever gets tired of being this wrong. It’s been seven years, and watching from afar, it looks exhausting.