McConnell: Wiretapping Not Just About Terrorists - It's About Iran

WASHINGTON - The year 1978 was a tense time in the world.

It started off badly: On New Year's Day, Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashed into the ocean near Bombay, killing 213. Jimmy Carter was president; inflation was out of control and there was talk of "malaise." We were at the height of the Cold War and Frank Carlucci was head of the CIA and Iran was looming large.

On Jan. 1, 2008 -- 30 years later -- John Granville, an official for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was being driven home late at night in Khartoum, Sudan when another vehicle cut off his car and opened fire, killing him and his driver. George W. Bush is president; there's talk of a recession and the flu is rampant. Iran is looming large and Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell is facing a tough fight to get a new version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, born in 1978, approved by Congress.

Sitting at the head of a large polished table in his spacious, bright office overlooking Bolling Air Force Base, McConnell has meticulously laid out several small pieces of paper before him on the table. They are strategy notes outlining his plan to convince skeptics on the Hill to pass the newly crafted FISA Amendments Act in Congress.

"The only way I know to do this is keep making the argument as clearly as we can possibly make it," McConnell tells WTOP.

That argument usually centers around al-Qaida, but this time, McConnell's focus is slightly different. The FISA Amendments Act is needed to contend with hostile countries, McConnell says.

He says the need now involves monitoring nation-states that disagree with U.S. policies and may want to harm the U.S., including "North Korea, potentially Iran, potentially Syria."

"Weapons of mass destruction proliferation could be nuclear, could be biological, could be chemical and so on. There are weapons development activities, nuclear research activities and so on going on around the globe. Our ability to understand, know about, be able to do something about that kind of activity frequently is driven by our collection capability, which of course includes electronic surveillance," McConnell says.

Islamic terrorism, however, is still knocking on the door.

"Following Sept. 11 and the United States' reaction in Afghanistan, we were successful in eliminating probably two-thirds of al-Qaida, either its leadership or its middle management or its combatant force and so on. That situation remained in effect until about 2006," McConnell says.

Intelligence, much of which was developed using FISA and the Protect America Act, led to that conclusion. A National Intelligence Estimate released last July indicated al-Qaida has has regained momentum and has not let up.

But House Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said in an earlier statement, "Democrats have made it abundantly clear that we are prepared to sit down with the White House and Republicans to work together. But we will not succumb to divisiveness and fear-mongering."

The hidden cost of wrangling on the Hill could be the cooperation of telecommunications companies that are critical in monitoring the phone calls of suspected terrorists.

Despite the skepticism on the Hill about Bush administration terrorism concerns and warnings, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller recently said in a statement, "Anger over the president's warrantless surveillance is appropriate and the administration should be held accountable. However, we should not hold the carriers hostage to years of litigation for stepping forward when the country asked for their help and providing assistance they believed to be legal and necessary."

That is precisely McConnell's concern.

"The fact is, if we lose cooperation from these or other private companies, our national security will suffer," he says. "Given the uncertainty, given the fact we can no longer compel, given the fact that public-sector companies are being sued and they're disincentivized - and as a matter of fact, the boards are fiscally responsible for these companies - our capability is atrophying today as a result of the expiration of the Protect America Act, and it will increase in its atrophy - the effect of the atrophy will increase as we go forward."

McConnell is not alone in his thinking. Gen. Michael Maples, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency says, "The biggest challenge for the organization is the fact that we are deeply engaged in conflict today in the global war on terror. And, our priority is to ensure the soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and civilians who are conducting the efforts of foreign nations have the intelligence they need to be successful."

"At the same time, we are undergoing a transformation of the intelligence community, trying to develop the kinds of integrated approaches to intelligence both within our national intelligence community and within defense intelligence ... Those efforts have to happen simultaneously -- a focus on ongoing operations at the same time we are changing our organizations and our processes -- and both of them have to be successful," Maples says.

That transformation without the proper tools to effectively keep up with terrorists and rogue nations has left the intelligence community in an uncomfortable position.

"And I would suspect we'll get back in that position we were in last summer where we lost two-thirds of our capability if we don't get this bill appropriately moved through the houses of Congress and on the president's desk," McConnell says.

The House is expected to take up the measure within days and McConnell is preparing for a fight, but hoping for less.

"We worked very closely with the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee, spent countless hours going through the details because the complexity is such that if you change a word or a phrase or a comma, it could have unintended consequences for us being able to do our mission."

(Copyright 2008 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)