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US official says Russian, Chinese spying a concern

The top US intelligence official is citing spying by China and Russia as he tries to persuade Congress not to roll back an anti-terrorism law that enhances the government's ability to intercept foreign calls and e-mail.

Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, says the two countries are aggressively spying on sensitive US facilities, intelligence systems and development projects and their efforts are approaching Cold War levels.

"Foreign intelligence information concerning the plans, activities and intentions of foreign powers and their agents is critical to protect the nation and preserve our security," McConnell stated in testimony prepared for a Tuesday congressional hearing.

Congress passed the law in effect to supersede or modify the three-decades-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which administration officials have said tied their hands in combating terrorism. Spying on traditional adversaries, such as China and Russia, was not discussed as a significant reason for the more relaxed surveillance conditions.

At the White House, press secretary Dana Perino urged in a statement that the law, passed on a six-month basis, be made permanent. She said it was necessary to protect "us from those who wish to do us harm."

By telling Congress not to succumb to pressure to relax the new Protect America Act, McConnell is trying not only to hold the line against what some, mainly Democrats, see as excesses in the law, but also is pressing to strengthen it.

Congress hastily adopted the measure last August based on McConnell's warnings of a dire gap in US intelligence. Some senior Democrats were hesitant then and remain so now.

"The right to privacy is too important to be sacrificed in a last-minute rush before a congressional recess, which is what happened," Democratic Representative John Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee's chairman, said on Tuesday.

Democrats worry that the law could open business records, library files, personal mail, and homes to searches by intelligence and law enforcement officers without court orders.

Speaking of the controversy over the law, the Justice Department and the White House issued a "myth and facts" paper on Tuesday that was meant to allay misgivings of civil liberties advocates and privacy groups that believe it gives the government broader powers than intended.

Democratic Representative Jerrold Nadler, chairman of the Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, called the effort a troubling "charm offensive."

"Let's have some truth in advertising. The act gives the president almost unfettered power to spy, without judicial approval, not only on foreigners but on Americans," Nadler said.

The law eased some of the restrictions on government eavesdropping contained in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Many are now having second thoughts as the complicated law -- intended to ease the government's interception of foreign calls and e-mails -- has come under attack by civil liberties and privacy advocates who contend it gives the government broader powers than intended.

McConnell says the Protect America Act gave the government the freedom to listen in on calls and e-mails that may help identify "sleeper cells" of terrorists in the US, according to an advance copy of his written statement to the House Judiciary Committee.
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