FISA Replacement Law Would Expose Overseas Americans to Unhampered Surveillance

The replacement version of the FISA bill is not new news.

Both House and Senate versions are well-known for granting immunity to telecom companies that have routinely engaged in spying on their customers. All the company will have to do is state "The president told us to do it," letting both them and the U.S. Congress off the hook.

Like much legislation in progress, the bills about permissible wiretapping are so cumbersome that members of Congress are ignoring important but lesser known consequences of administering the Act resulting from their vote.

However, even bills passed by both houses have a hurdle to jump before they are enacted into law..After each house passes a bill, the two versions go to a conference committee. For this reason, it is still worthwhile considering the sweeping effects of the surveillance (spying) the new law would enable.In the past few years, US citizens have already felt the effects of the Patriot Act and airport inspections.The new FISA's powers are even more comprehensive.

In a five-part analysis of the FISA bill, Patrick Keefe, writing for Slate, discussed the effect the new legislation, if enacted in its present form, would have on emails that cross borders. A government official who wants to target purely domestic communications has to go to the FISA court after a week of warrant-less surveillance.. But if the email passes between someone in the US and someone in another country, the secret FISA court is only consulted only on the soundness of the "targeting procedures," not on whether the targets (in other words, people) can legitimately have their mail read. In fact, any mail entering or leaving the U.S. through our nation's telecom switches will be vulnerable.

To put it another way, the NSA (National Security Agency) will be able to intercept your mail. Even for Americans living within U.S. borders, the burden of proof in a pinch will be on them.

And do Americans want every email they send to someone in another country to be routinely "opened?" A US citizen in one of the 50 states who objects can at least stand stand on his rights. The same is not true for American citizens living overseas. For overseas Americans, whether retired school teachers in Mexico or reporters on assignment in Africa, the United States Congress is likely to give away any legal protection whatsoever.

A look back at US history reveals massive governmental over-reaction in troubled times, for example, in the internment of just about everyone of Japanese ancestry during World War II. Stay tuned for how future history students will view events in 2008. Meanwhile watch what you write or receive from friends, relatives, and businesses outside the U.S. borders if you don't want Big Brother to know.