Who's listening in on you? Will the Protect America Act provide the means necessary to surveil and catch terrorists, while safeguarding Americans' Fourth Amendment protections? No and no.(SURVEILLANCE)(Cover story)

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On February 12, the U.S. Senate approved, by a 68-29 vote, espionage legislation that would expand the government's authority to intercept international phone calls and e-mails and to block lawsuits against U.S. telecommunications companies that aided in past spying efforts. The legislation would permanently expand the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA). FISA, which has been amended several times, established a special court and specific procedures for gathering both physical and electronic foreign intelligence inside the United States.

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An Electronic Police State?

To keep Americans safe, says Mike McConnell, the Director of National Intelligence and erstwhile National Security Agency spook who has spent much of his recent time promoting this expansion, government agents must have the ability to intercept electronic information, including that crossing the Internet, throughout the United States. (There are those who believe the NSA has been doing that for years, but that is a debate for another day.) The rationale is the fact that much of the world's communication crosses channels in the United States at some point. The government figures the situation presents a great opportunity to listen in on communications to and from supposed terrorists who may actually be outside the United States.

The obvious problem behind such legislation is that allowing such listening in, particularly without the establishment of probable cause, will likely lead to abuse. In a bit of cruel irony, this legislation is named "The Protect America Act." (No, it's not you; the Twilight Zone music did just start playing.)

A summary of selected provisions follows, with some explanatory commentary.