House Intelligence Committee To Hold Hearings Before Amending FISA. Oversight, What A Concept?

Congressman Silvestre Reyes (D-TX), Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has announced plans for the committee to hold a series of Intelligence Committee hearings on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Mike McConnell has asked Congress to rewrite FISA to, among other things, grant retroactive immunity to individuals and companies facilitating electronic surveillance activities in support of the NSA surveillance program disclosed by President Bush in December 2005.

Reyes says that before granting immunity for any activities, it is important for the committee to review what those activities were, what was the legal basis for those activities, and what would be the impact of a grant of immunity.

The committee's hearings will begin in June and will focus on the following questions:

What surveillance activities has the President authorized under the NSA surveillance program disclosed in December 2005? What was the legal basis for these activities, and how did those activities change since the inception of the program? What activities are occurring today?

How does the current FISA system operate? Can this system be improved?

Are current legal authorities adequate for tracking terrorist communications, or are changes to the law required?

Whether current and proposed legal authorities adequately protect the Fourth Amendment rights of Americans.

In April 2006, the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed Tash Hepting, et al v. AT&T et al, Case No. C-06-0672-VRW, in the Northern District of California, alleging that for years AT&T has purposely and improperly diverted customer traffic to the NSA as a means of aiding the NSA's covert surveillance program. At the time of the filing EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston said that

The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment. More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now.

You can find out more about both the lawsuit and the hearings at Ars Technica's news desk. These are hearings we don't want to miss. Gee, I hope at least some of them are public.