McConnell Retracts Assertions About the Protect America Act

The nation's top intelligence official, Mike McConnell, on Monday told the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that powers granted by the new Protect America Act helped stopped the planned German attacks.^[1]

However he was quickly proven wrong, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee disputed McConnell's version of the facts on Tuesday.^[2] Rep. Silvestre Reyes asserted that the intelligence used to capture the would-be terrorists was collected under the old version of the surveillance law, not the new.^[3] "In fact, FISA, which you repeatedly claim is 'outdated,' was precisely the tool that helped disrupt this plot….the new law did not lead to the arrests of the three terrorist plotters, as you claimed." Reyes said.^[4]

Congress hastily adopted the law, which amended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act under strong pressure from McConnell and the White House just before lawmakers went on vacation in early August.^[5] This has caused some controversy in the wake of the warrantless wiretapping issues that have been surfacing; the new surveillance law expires in six months.^[6] Many Democrats want to change it sooner, arguing that it gives the government far more power to eavesdrop than they initially understood.^[7]

McConnell, on Wednesday, recanted his claim that new surveillance powers recently given to the U.S. government helped foil a terrorist plot in Germany saying, "[i]nformation contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act," Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said in a statement issued Wednesday.^[8]

The Protect America Act of 2007 amends FISA by removing surveillance of communications that begin or end in a foreign country from supervision of the FISA Court.^[9] The Act removes from the definition of "electronic surveillance" in FISA any surveillance directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States.^[10] As such, surveillance of these communications no longer requires a government application to, and order issuing from, the FISA Court.^[11]

Federal criminal defense attorney Douglas McNabb has previously written about weapons of mass destruction in his blog, here; and this particular case, here

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^[1] Pamela Hess, Associated Press Newswire, New Law Did Not Help in Terror Arrests, September 12, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.
^[8] Id.
^[9] Protect America Act of 2007, Pub.L. 110-55, S. 1927, 110th Cong. (2007)
^[10] Id.
^[11] Id.