Posted May 5, 2003.

CIA, Pentagon Seek Broad Record-Gathering Powers

The Bush administration and leading Senate Republicans are attempting to expand the intelligence-gathering powers of the Central Intelligence Agency and the Department of Defense by giving them the authority to demand personal and financial records from Internet service providers, credit-card companies, libraries, and other organizations. The proposal was defeated in a closed-door session of the Senate Intelligence Committee May 1, but committee Chair Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kans.) intends to hold further hearings on the plan, the New York Times reported May 1.

The measure had been added to a broader intelligence authorization bill now pending before Congress. The Times said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and other Democrats managed to get it removed from the authorization bill, which went on to pass the committee unanimously.

Democrats and civil-liberties advocates voiced alarm at the idea of the CIA and the military being allowed to pry into Americans' personal and financial records without being subject to judicial oversight. Timothy Edgar, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the plan “dangerous and un-American,” and a congressional Democratic aide told the Times the measure appeared to exceed even the controversial “Son of Patriot” antiterrorism measures under consideration by the Justice Department. 

Posted May 5, 2003.