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CNN Saturday Morning News

PATRIOT Act Worries Civil Liberties Advocates

Aired February 02, 2002 - 09:27   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the wake of 9/11, the Bush administration has secured new law giving authorities the right, with permission, to tap computers, faxes, or phones if they become suspicious, and then share that information with the CIA. The new law has some civil liberty advocates worried.

CNN national security correspondent David Ensor has our story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Not since the 1970s, when U.S. intelligence was discovered to have been bugging anti-Vietnam war activists like Jane Fonda and Dr. Benjamin Spock, have Americans needed to worry that their government might be spying on them.

It was outlawed in 1978 by a law that also set up a firewall separating domestic law enforcement information from the CIA. But since September 11, civil liberties advocates charge, the government has knocked some big holes in that firewall.

MORT HALPERIN, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: The FBI and the CIA now can exchange information not simply on this international terrorist threat but on anything that's of interest to the CIA. And I think that's very dangerous.

ENSOR: Under the USA PATRIOT Act signed into law in October, law enforcement can get permission to wiretap a telephone, computer, or fax if suspicion the person might be working for a foreign government or terrorist group is not the reason but only one of the reasons he's being watched. And the new law says intelligence agencies can have access to those wiretaps and to secret grand jury testimony as well.

JEFFREY SMITH, FORMER CIA GENERAL COUNSEL: We have expanded it. But I -- in my judgment this is -- the courts will watch this. It will not be abused.

ENSOR: Former CIA general counsel Smith says if the new law had been in place before September 11, then the FBI and the CIA might have been able to search the laptop of the suspected would-be 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui immediately after he was questioned for wanting to learn to fly but not to land.

SMITH: We might have found things that would have linked -- that were clearly linkages to the other terrorists. Something might have occurred. In my judgment, that's a mistake. Why should the United States laws protect a foreign national who's coming here to kill Americans?

ENSOR: But letting the CIA get grand jury information, some of which later turns out to be wrong, could end up, critics say, hurting innocent, ordinary Americans.

HALPERIN: That information that's gathered by a grand jury, which can compel testimony about lawful political activity in the United States, can be shared with the CIA, which in turn will share it with foreign intelligence services. And we have examples of people who were arrested and tortured, countries like Chile and other places.

ENSOR (on camera): Law enforcement and intelligence officials are now asking Congress for some additional tools, including changes to make it easier to get into the e-mails of suspected terrorists and those they communicate with. And they're also suggesting a new law to require Internet service providers to allow investigators into their files on their clients without a warrant from a judge.

Civil liberties advocates are fighting those ideas too.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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