National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell exposed classified details of government surveillance and of a secretive court. His comments -- made in an interview with the El Paso Times -- raised eyebrows for discussing classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. Here is what he exposed:
- The private sector assisted with President Bush's warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation.
- New details on court rulings handed down by the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves classified eavesdropping operations and whose proceedings are almost always entirely secret. He exposed a secret court ruling that went into effect May 31 requiring the government to get court warrants to monitor communications between two foreigners if the conversation travels on a wire in the U.S. network. Millions of calls each day do, because of the robust nature of the U.S. systems.
- It takes 200 hours to assemble a FISA warrant on a single telephone number.
- Revealed that fewer than 100 people inside the United States are monitored under FISA warrants. However, thousands of people overseas are monitored.
