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As Surveillance Law Expires, Blame Game Goes On

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By PAMELA HESS, The Associated Press

Published: February 16, 2008

WASHINGTON - With a government eavesdropping law about to expire, Washington is awash in accusations over who's to blame.
President Bush said Friday that "our country is in more danger of an attack" because of Congress' failure to adopt a Senate bill that would have renewed a law that made it easier for the government to spy on foreign phone calls and e-mail that pass through the United States.

That bill also would have shielded from lawsuits telecommunications companies that helped the government wiretap U.S. computer and phone lines after the Sept. 11 attacks without clearance from a secret court that was established specifically to oversee such activities. In its competing version of the legislation, the House intentionally left out that provision.

Democrats, in turn, accused Bush of fear-mongering and misrepresenting the facts.

"This is not about protecting Americans. The president just wants to protect American telephone companies," Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, head of the House Democratic Caucus, said Friday.

Beyond the rhetoric, the central issue is what the government can and can't do come midnight today, when a temporary eavesdropping law adopted by Congress last August expires.

The government can eavesdrop after the law expires, but it would have to go back to its old procedures, getting orders approved by the super-secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
House Democrats sought to extend the current law temporarily to buy time to work out a longer-term compromise. The White House objected, and the attempt failed.

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