The Wiretap Flap Continues

THE WIRETAP FLAP CONTINUES
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Bruce Berkowitz, Hoover Institution]
[Commentary] American law has always assumed that most domestic communications are protected by the Constitution, but foreigners communicating abroad are not, and are fair game for U.S intelligence. Such intelligence is critical today to monitor terrorists and proliferators of weapons of mass destruction. The problem is that our laws were not designed for today's technology. Until about 10 years ago most international communications traveled by satellite, and intelligence services could snatch them out of the air. Now this traffic is carried over a highly interconnected fiber-optic network. This fact raises a question that is at the core of the controversy over what constitutes a "domestic" communication. At least one judge interprets the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA, the law that regulates such intercepts) to mean that any message traveling over a cable on American soil is a domestic communication -- even when it is from one foreigner to another foreigner, and both are on the other side of the world.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119007762747930653.html?mod=todays_us_op...
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