Warrantless Wiretapping Bill Approved

The Washington Post is reporting that "The Democratic-controlled House last night approved and sent to President Bush for his signature legislation written by his intelligence advisers to enhance their ability to intercept the electronic communications of foreigners without a court order."

Starstream Research gathers open source intelligence and maintains contacts with foreign nationals, including our contributing British associate.

According to the Washington Post, the legislation "... would allow the interception and recording of electronic communications involving, at least in part, people 'reasonably believed to be outside the United States' without a court's order or oversight," and "White House spokesman Tony Fratto emphasized that the bill is not meant to increase eavesdropping on Americans or 'to affect in any way the legitimate privacy rights' of U.S. citizens. Data related to Americans in communications with foreigners who are the targets of a U.S. terrorism investigation could be monitored only if intelligence officials have a reasonable expectation of learning information relevant to that probe, a senior U.S. official said."

We wonder if that might be extended to include foreign contacts associated with private open-source intelligence gathering, involving confidential testimony of U.S. officials, that might potentially reveal 'methods and sources' used by USG Intelligence Agencies, such as the alleged NSA psychic remote viewing program.

R.J. Hillhouse has made an interesting observation