Freedom of Information Act

If you have travelled in the last year, then you are aware of at least one of the US government’s efforts to combat international terrorism and to protect the homeland. This effort is the full body scans now being used for airport security. These efforts combat terrorism have brought the issue of privacy verses national security to the forefront. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) currently up for reauthorization in Congress is an excellent example of another implementation of this debate. Some members of Congress argue that the bill does not do enough to protect privacy however, when looking over the provisions and history of the FAA there should be no debate about its ability to effectively gather valuable information while appropriately respecting privacy interests. The FAA should be reauthorized because it helps to collect valuable intelligence regarding national security, while ensuring that the government collection of this intelligence follows important provisions and safeguards to protect the reasonable privacy interests of US persons. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was enacted in 1978 and authorized procedures for the collection of foreign intelligence through physical and electronic surveillance of foreign powers and agents of foreign powers. The Act set up a specific court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), to review and approve requests for surveillance warrants by various government agencies. FISA required individual warrants from the FISC for every surveillance target with a 72-hour grace period to acquire that warrant in exigent circumstances. The goal of FISA was to provide judicial and congressional oversight of secret government surveillance for intelligence gathering. After the attacks on the World Trace Center in 2001, President Bush authorized surveillance without FISA warrants of the communications of non-US citizens considered a threat to national security and believed to be outside the United