Political Quotes

“Nobody has shown any damage done by the Protect America Act. What it has done is given our intelligence community the ability to intercept foreign terrorist electronic communications. It has kept the world and our allies and our own people safer. If anybody wants to look at that, there are, in our enclosed intelligence rooms, the full description of what has been gained. The amendment before us, allowing the FISA Court to assess compliance, may sound like a good idea. But when we talk about foreign targeting, we are outside the FISA Court's experience and their expertise. The FISA Court was created in 1978 to issue orders for domestic surveillance on particular targets. But Congress specifically left foreign surveillance activities to the executive branch and to the intelligence community. This is the first time we have heard that a court, set up to oversee domestic applications for electronic surveillance, should be involved in the foreign targeting efforts dealing with foreign information.”