FC: Feds should be able to spy on non-U.S. citizens, CIA says

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

An excerpt from my article from last week... Lago is talking about USA 
Patriot and so on in his "went crazy" reference.

Also see Sen. DeWine's related bill (it's so extreme that even the Justice 
Department has criticized it, albeit mildly):
http://news.com.com/2010-1071-948283.html?tag=politech

-Declan

---

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-956827.html

   [...]

   "Civil libertarians just went crazy," said Philip Lago, deputy
   executive secretary at the CIA.

   Because the CIA's records are classified, "I can't share with you the
   successes, and there have been literally hundreds of them," Lago said
   at the conference.

   Lago said that while the intelligence community is sensitive to
   concerns about overly broad surveillance, laws can complicate
   effective intelligence-gathering. "The National Security Agency is
   working on the Fourth Amendment thing," Lago said. He added that legal
   restrictions against spying on U.S. citizens are not controversial,
   but those same limitations pose a problem when immigrants and tourists
   can benefit from the Fourth Amendment's prohibition on "unreasonable"
   searches.

   "I wish we could make every single member of this country--there goes
   this democracy thing, right?--read those New York Times articles
   (about victims of the World Trade Center) and realize what this is
   about," Lago said.

   [...]




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