Counter-Intelligence Provisions Pass Senate

[Dave Banisar <cpsr@access.digex.net>]

[2] National Security Provisions Added to Competitiveness Act

In March, the US Senate added several controversial provisions to S. 4,
the National Competitiveness Act of 1994, to make counter-intelligence
surveillance easier. The amendment, named the Counter-Intelligence
Improvement Act of 1994, was introduced by Senator William Cohen (R-ME)
and approved by a voice vote March 10. S. 4 passed the Senate on March
16 and is now pending in the House of Representatives as HR. 820.

One provision makes it easier for the FBI to obtain credit reports.
Another allows the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to
authorize break-ins. 

Section 1011(b) authorizes the FBI to obtain the credit reports of
individuals without a warrant if a designee of the Attorney General
sends a letter to the credit bureau stating that the subject is the
target of a counter-intelligence investigation and they have "specific
and articulable facts" that the person is a foreign agent.

Section 1011(c) allows the FBI to obtain the name, address, former
addresses, current and former places of employment of a person from a
credit bureau with a written request stating that "the information is
necessary to the conduct of an authorized foreign counterintelligence
investigation." The credit bureaus are prohibited from disclosing to
the people that their reports have been obtained. The only oversight is
a yearly report presented to the Intelligence Committees of the House
and the Senate.

Another provision allows the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,
(FISC) a secretive court of 7 specially chosen judges created by the
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to authorize physical
searches. The court currently only has jurisdiction to authorize
electronic surveillance in counter-intelligence cases. Since its
formation in 1979, it has never rejected any of the 6,500 requests by
the government for a electronic surveillance order.