Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: Overview & Modifications.

Recent amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance act have given the government expanded powers for electronic investigation under the act. Many have voiced concerns that with such broad rules the personal freedoms enshrined in American tradition are in danger, despite the protestations of federal officials who say they will not abuse their authority. Given the current threats to U.S. security and revelations about intelligence failures leading to September 11, 2001, there is a case to be made that national security trumps individual liberty in certain cases. As questions arise over "battlefield detainees" and the fate of those held for undisclosed violations, the importance of law enforcement regulations takes center stage.

The current legislative and oversight activity with respect to electronic surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) has drawn national attention to several overarching issues. This book outlines three such issues and touches upon some of the perspectives reflected in the ongoing debate. These issues include the inherent and often dynamic tension between national security and civil liberties, particularly rights of privacy and free speech; the need for the intelligence community to be able to efficiently and effectively collect foreign intelligence information from the communications of foreign persons located outside the United States in a changing, fast-paced, and technologically sophisticated international environment or from United States persons abroad, and the differing approaches suggested to meet this need; and limitations of liability for those electronic communication service providers who furnish aid to the federal government in its foreign intelligence collection. Two constitutional provisions are implicated in this debate - the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

This book is an overview of The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was passed in 1978 and provides a statutory framework for the use of electronic surveillance in the context of foreign intelligence gathering. Congress sought to strike a delicate balance between national security interests and personal privacy rights. Subsequent legislation expanded federal laws dealing with foreign intelligence gathering to address physical searches, pen registers and trap and trace devices and access to certain business records. The Patriot Act of 2001 made significant changes to some of these provisions. In addressing international terrorism or espionage, the same factual situation may be the focus of both criminal investigations and foreign intelligence collection efforts. Some of these changes in FISA under these public laws are intended, in part, to facilitate information sharing between law enforcement and intelligence elements. In its Final Report, the 9/11 Commission noted that the removal of the pre-9/11 "wall" between intelligence and law enforcement "has opened up new opportunities for co-operative action within the FBI".