AP: Chief of intelligence details surveillance

WASHINGTON - National

Intelligence Director Mike Mc-

Connell pulled the curtain back

on previously classified details of

government surveillance and of a

secretive court whose recent rul-

ings created new hurdles for the

Bush administration as it tries to

prevent terrorism.

McConnell's comments - made

in an interview with the El Paso

Times last week and posted as a

transcript on the newspaper's Web

site Wednesday - raised eyebrows

for their frank discussion of pre-

viously classified eavesdropping

work conducted under the For-

eign Intelligence Surveillance Act,

known as FISA. Among the disclo-

sures:

McConnell confirmed for the

first time that the private sector

assisted with President Bush's

warrantless surveillance program.

AT&T, Verizon and other telecom-

munications companies are being

sued for their cooperation. "Now if

you play out the suits at the value

they're claimed, it would bankrupt

these companies," McConnell said,

arguing that they deserve immu-

nity for their help.

He provided new details on

court rulings handed down by the

11-member Foreign Intelligence

Surveillance Court, which ap-

proves classified eavesdropping

operations and whose proceed-

ings are almost always entirely se-

cret. McConnell said a ruling that

went into effect May 31 required

the government to get court war-

rants to monitor communications

between two foreigners if the con-

versation travels on a wire in the

U.S. network. Millions of calls each

day do, because of the robust na-

ture of the U.S. systems.

McConnell said it takes 200

hours to assemble a FISA warrant

on a single telephone number.

"We're going backwards," he said.

"We couldn't keep up."

Offering never-disclosed fig-

ures, McConnell also revealed that

fewer than 100 people inside the

United States are monitored under

FISA warrants. However, he said,

thousands of people overseas are

monitored.

McConnell's comments were a

dramatic departure from the gov-

ernment's normally tight-lipped

approach to disclosing any infor-

mation about how it spies on elec-

tronic communications - some of

its most sensitive and costly work.

The FISA court's activities are par-

ticularly protected.

Even as he shed new light on the

classified operations, McConnell

asserted that the current debate in

Congress about whether to update

the Foreign Intelligence Surveil-

lance Act will cost American lives

because of all the information it

revealed to terrorists.

"Part of this is a classified world.

The fact that we're doing it this

way means that some Americans

are going to die," he said.

McConnell was in El Paso last

week for a conference on border

security hosted by House Intelli-

gence Chairman Silvestre Reyes,

a Texas Democrat. The spy chief

joined Reyes for an interview with

his local paper.

At the end of the interview, Mc-

Connell cautioned reporter Chris

Roberts that he should consider

whether enemies of the U.S. could

gain from the information he just

shared in the interview, Roberts

said. McConnell left it to the paper

to decide what to publish.

"I don't believe it damaged na-

tional security or endangered any

of our people," said El Paso Times

Executive Editor Dionicio Flores.

McConnell appeared days after

Congress passed a temporary law

to expand the government's abil-

ity to monitor suspects in national

security investigations - terrorists,

spies and others - without first

seeking court approval in certain

cases. The highly contentious mea-

sure expires in six months.

After Sept. 11, Bush authorized

the terrorist surveillance program

to monitor conversations between

people in the United States and oth-

ers overseas when terrorism is sus-

pected. Until January, no warrants

were required. But as the Demo-

cratic Congress took over, the Bush

administration decided to bring the

program under the oversight of the

FISA court.

McConnell said the court initial-

ly ruled that the program was ap-

propriate and legitimate. But when

the ruling had to be renewed in the

spring, another judge saw the op-

erations differently. This judge,

who McConnell did not identify,

decided that the government need-

ed a warrant to monitor a conver-

sation between foreigners when

the signal traveled on a wire in the

U.S. communications network.

McConnell said the govern-

ment got a temporary stay on the

ruling, but it expired at the end of

May. "After the 31st of May, we

were in extremis because now we

have significantly less capability,"

he said.