More On Wiretapping

I just heard an interview on the radio with Republican Representative Pete Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House intelligence committee, about the current wiretapping situation. I blogged about this just a couple days ago, but this was an interesting interview, so I wanted to throw out a few of the key points.

- the compromise of allowing foreign communications surveillance to be brought under FISA authority was a terrible mistake, bogging down one of the best tools we had in the War on Terror
- telecommunications is vastly different today than when the FISA court was designed; it is now completely possible, for example, to have a call originate in Spain and terminate in Spain, but be routed through the U.S.
- the Bush administration is asking to be allowed full authorization to monitor calls with two foreign endpoints
- right now, they have to go to court to prove the need to tap a certain call; by the time the approval comes back, it's usually too late to get any effective information
- this issue has a real effect on our troops on the ground in the war - they often get leads that need immediate action, but having to wait for the FISA court approval causes delays that make their jobs more difficult

Hoekstra would like to see the following policies:
- when targeting a foreign number or collection point, FISA has no jurisdiction at all
- if a U.S. citizen is ever (intentionally or unintentionally) targeted, the situation would be reviewed by FISA

Just a few more details for you.

There's my two cents.