Let surveillance do its job

Re “It’s Bush’s call,” editorial, Oct. 13

In criticizing the temporary fix of the foreign terrorist surveillance program that Congress passed in August, The Times somehow believes our intelligence officers want to spend all their time listening in on honeymooners in Paris. How many Americans overseas on vacation or business does The Times believe make calls from Fallouja to Baghdad?

Indeed, since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was passed in 1978, targeting a U.S. citizen overseas for surveillance requires agreement by the attorney general that there is probable cause to believe the target is a foreign agent or terrorist. That was a system no one claimed was broken.

Requiring the FISA court to approve collection against foreign targets who may communicate with foreign or domestic contacts, as the old law required and House Democrats now propose to restore, was unnecessarily burdensome.

I was proud of the temporary fix, and I am proud to be working with my Democratic Senate colleagues on a comprehensive, bipartisan FISA agreement. I do not believe the answer is more bureaucracy.

I expect a solution that protects American civil liberties and gives our intelligence terror fighters the tools they need to protect us at home and abroad.

Sen. Christopher

“Kit” Bond

(R-Mo.)

The writer is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.