ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell retracted his assertion that the Amendments to FISA enacted in the "Protect America Act" played a role in arresting three terrorism suspects who plotted to blow up German nightclubs frequented by U.S. military personnel, reports  TPMMuckracker.

During the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on September 10, 2007, I discussed the . . . recent amendments to FISA made by the Protect America Act. . . . [I]nformation contributing to the recent arrests was not collected under authorities provided by the Protect America Act.

The New York Times reports the following exchange from the hearing: 

When asked by the chairman, Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, whether the new law that Congress adopted last month facilitated the German arrests, Mr. McConnell said, “Yes, sir, it did. . . ."

The Times analyzes the context of the remarks:

The previous law required officials to seek warrants to monitor at least some phone calls and e-mail messages between foreign locations when they were collected from fiber-optic cable in the United States; the new law waived that requirement.

This distinction is important because Mr. McConnell’s remarks, on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, were an important part of the Bush administration’s intensifying effort to make permanent the new law, which is scheduled to expire in about five months.