Essay on President Bush and FISA - 2086 Words

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was a necessary measure signed by President Jimmy Carter in an effort to stop the CIA, FBI, NSA, and other executive powers from conducting warrantless wiretaps of domestic groups for so-called national security purposes. This was necessary because findings by the Church Committee in the early 1970s suggested that warrantless wiretapping had been going on for quite some time by these government entities and was exacerbated by President Nixon and the Watergate scandal. This bill not only set a future precedent for how surveillance should be conducted, but also attempted to set a standard for what â€Å"good† and â€Å"bad† surveillance were defined as. FISA did not face any substantial challenges†¦show more content†¦These problems that President Bush encountered where in fact very similar to the problems that the Carter administration predicted would surface when they were drawing up the bill in the late 1970s. Carter and other executive members brought up many valid concerns that included physical searches, overseas surveillance, communications intelligence, and how much power to give to the president (Carter Memo 2). The version of FISA proposed in 1978 was in itself a solid piece of legislature. Over the years, many amendments have been made to it that have slowly surrendered its power and allowed to the executive branch to create loopholes in which to continue warrantless surveillance where and when they see it fit. For this reason, the FISA process of requiring review by a special court is still viable, but does need some adjustments that allow it to stand similarly to its original form. Since the passing of FISA came after a widespread finding of warrantless wiretapping by a number of different government entities, Congress along with the Carter administration, needed to carefully craft a bill that not only reconciled national security needs to conduct domestic surveillance, but also continued to protect individual liberties such as that of the first and fourth amendments. The once top-secret Carter administration memos regarding FISA offer a first-hand glimpse at the thinking that went intoShow MoreRelatedDomestic Surveillance During The United States1474 Words   |  6 Pagescongress started to treat Domestic Surveillance as a number one priority. After September 11th Congress passed a law to use military force for those responsible for the attacks in New York, NY. The go ahead with using military force did not give the President to use surveillance without a warrant. Congress started to pass legislation against counterterrorism efforts. The most controversial me asures, including the 2001 USA Patriot Act that gave the US federal government the ability to collect and analyzeRead MoreThe End Of The Second World War1130 Words   |  5 PagesAgency (CIA) and other federal agencies. Longing for a structured security agency that would be able to break the code systems used by opposing forces, President Harry Truman established the National Security Agency on November 2, 1952 (Plethrons NSA 1). Prior to the early 1970s, American citizens viewed the Executive Branch with high respect. Presidents of the United States throughout the early twentieth century claimed to have the power to organize warrantless surveillances for national security purposesRead MorePresident Obama s View Of The War On Terror1255 Words   |  6 PagesPresident Obama’s Approach to the War on Terror After the attacks on 9/11, the â€Å"War on Terror† became President Bush’s main focus for his political agenda. 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This act ushered the NSA into a positionRead MoreThe Patriot Act And Homeland Security Act Of 20021329 Words   |  6 PagesABSTRACT In the aftermath of September 11, 2001teerrorist attacks, Congress and President Busch drafted, passed and enacted a number of laws that were focused on improving the nation’s security form terrorist attack and upgrading its ability to search for, identify, and eliminate terrorist threats at homes and international. Two of the most important and far reaching laws to come from the political and legislative action for the fall were the Uniting and Strengthening Americas by Providing ToolsRead MoreA Study of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act1503 Words   |  6 Pagesthe constitution. This violation of rules and laws by the government led towards the formulation of foreign intelligence surveillance act. The primary feature of this act was as follows; the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court) which allows the executive branch to secretly obtain warrants for electronic surveillance but only with strict judicial review Previously there were seven members of foreign intelligence surveillance act court but now the number has beenRead MoreThe Intelligence Community Of The United States1619 Words   |  7 Pagesthey failed to make terrorism a top priority because each of these organizations had different approaches to the subject. For example, when Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, many of the agents that worked for the FBI misunderstood the purpose behind the act. FISA was created in order for a â€Å"search to be approved only if its primary purpose was to obtain foreign intelligence information† (69). However, FBI agents misinterpreted the law and believed any informationRead MoreLiteral Intelligence Collection1389 Words   |  6 Pagesknow an attack was imminent. This â€Å"failure† of intelligence caused a shake up within the entire IC, leading to many future changes. One such change was in communications intelligence (COMINT) collection. According to Cummings (2006), â€Å"President George W. Bush said that he authorized NSA to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations in the weeks following the September 11th terrorist attacks† (p. 6). The President’s decisionRead MoreEdward Snowden and The Government Data Collection Program1439 Words   |  6 Pagesmany others†(Lee 1). On June 7th, shortly after the leak, president Obama came out and addressed the issue in support of it. His quote which has been repeated many times since was, â€Å"You cant 100% security and then also have 100% privacy and 0 inconvenience†(Gidda 2). In order to fully understand how the NSA got into the position it is now we have to understand how it bypasses the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978. FISA allowed special courts to authorize electronic surveillance