FISA--NOT THE MAGNA CARTA

Cheverly, Md.

In the wake of the illegal wiretap scandal, Bush critics are invoking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act like it's the Magna Carta. Actually, FISA is flawed legislation that imperils civil liberties and opens the door to abusive law enforcement. In the 1990s federal "anti-terror" agents secretly searched American homes and manipulated phone-tap data to prosecute people who obviously posed no terrorist threat. In the case of my husband, Kurt Stand, the government netted three domestic dissidents. Terrorism had nothing to do with it. The three harmless defendants are still serving draconian prison terms, and some of the evidence used to that end is still secret, its veracity unexamined. One more Bush outrage notwithstanding, let's not glorify the past. Janet Reno and Louis Freeh used highly dubious tools for highly dubious reasons, with Congressional authorization. The FISA Court went along. Instead of defending FISA, we should call for procedural reforms that will really protect individuals.

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