In Wiretap Law’s Stead, Uncertainty

IN WIRETAP LAW'S STEAD, UNCERTAINTY
[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Eric Lichtblau]
All last week, intelligence officials fielded calls from nervous lawyers for the country’s phone companies. With a wiretapping law allowed to lapse in Congress, they were no longer certain what they were supposed to do when the government came to them with a wiretapping order, administration officials said. “They’re raising questions, and they’re saying, ‘Look, we've got an expired piece of legislation,’ ” recounted a senior administration official who was involved in the conversations. “It’s not crystal clear.” President Bush and his senior aides have been warning for the last 10 days that the country was left more vulnerable by the expiration of the surveillance law on Feb. 16, and said last week that the government had already lost valuable counterterrorism intelligence because of Congressional inaction. But as a practical matter, the issue is less about harm that has actually been done than about the prospect that such harm will be done because of uncertainty in the government and the telecommunications industry over what is now allowed, officials involved in the discussions say. Even with the law lapsed, intelligence officials continue to be able to put wiretaps on terrorism and espionage suspects under directives that were approved before the expiration of the six-month law, the Protect America Act, which gave the government a freer hand in deciding whom to wiretap without court approval.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27fisa.html?ref=todayspaper
(requires registration)