Protect America Act – Protection or Infringement.

Protect America Act (PAA) is a piece of legislation for modernizing foreign intelligence law to better protect America. The provision of the PAA are sought to be included into the updated version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978. The PAA was passed by the Congress in July 2007 and was due to expire on February 15 2008. The House of Representatives has not re-authorized the Act for the ensuing year. With the expiration of the Act the PAA authorized current intelligence activated will not expire immediately as all such activities are authorized for a year.

What the PAA protects and what it threatens?

The Act allows the Administration to collect information without any oversight by the Congress or the courts. President Bush and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell have through their speeches and comments painted numerous scary scenarios threatening America if the Act is not passed. If one merely happens to read these comments, it would seem more likely to be a threat call from the Al-Qaeda rather than a speech from the American Head of State. For example Mike McConnell commented, “those living on American soil are likely to suffer a horrendous act."

Under this act the Attorney General and not the Secret Intelligence Courts, warrants year-long surveillance of people believed to threaten US and stationed outside the US. Though the Act is aimed at gathering information about people outside the US, calls and emails that are monitored in the process can potentially involve a US based party or person. In such a scenario the Act clearly infringes upon the civil liberties of US citizens. The Act contains no clarification about the issue of Americans’ calls and emails being intercepted in the process. The Act also provides legal immunity for the telecom companies cooperating with the Administration for realizing the new surveillance programme.

Beyond these technical discussions the PAA threatens a basic principle of the US Constitution - principle of ‘checks and balances’. Can the Executive be authorized to conduct intelligence surveillance without being accountable to the other branches of the Government of the people of America?