Memo to Caucus on NSA program

MEMORANDUM

TO: Members of the House Democratic Caucus

FR: Democratic Members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

RE: USA Today article on NSA Domestic Surveillance Program


All nine of us met this afternoon to discuss the serious issues raised by this morning’s USA Today article describing NSA’s collection of telephone records, as well as another report that the NSA has denied lawyers at the Department of Justice the necessary security clearances to investigate the President’s Domestic Surveillance program.

We take a backseat to nobody in demanding that the federal government have strong tools to detect terrorist plots. You entrust us to oversee our nation’s secret intelligence programs, and we owe it to you – and the American people – to ensure that these programs are not only effective, but also consistent with the Constitution, laws, and values of the United States.

This morning’s article reinforces our long-held view that any and all electronic surveillance of Americans – including all activities of the President’s surveillance program – must comply with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and the Fourth Amendment.

Any collection of personal telephone records requires a warrant approved by an independent magistrate on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Warrantless collection violates the law.

We recognize that increased surveillance may be a necessary consequence of a post-9/11 world. However, this increased surveillance must be targeted, based on individualized suspicion, and limited to protect the privacy and civil liberties of innocent Americans.

Increased surveillance programs also necessitate stronger oversight by all three branches of government.

This Executive Branch cannot be trusted to police itself – particularly if investigators at the Department of Justice are denied the security clearances to review the legality of the NSA Program.

The Judicial Branch – the Article III judges of the FISA Court – cannot conduct effective checks on surveillance of U.S. persons if the Bush Administration conducts an end-run around the judges of the Court.

And the Legislative Branch cannot conduct effective oversight over our government’s intelligence activities if the President refuses to give us all of the facts about his authorization to conduct surveillance on Americans.

Five of us are now authorized to receive briefings on the activities of the President’s Domestic Surveillance Program – and that process is just beginning in earnest. But all nine of us remain unanimous in our view that the entire Intelligence Committee must be briefed. The failure to brief the full Committee constitutes a violation of the National Security Act of 1947 (as amended). None of us misses the irony that leaks about the program are coming from the Executive Branch, not us.

Those of us briefed into the program will continue to demand full information. We will demand answers from the White House, the NSA, DOJ, and relevant private sector officials. All of us will continue to insist that the President comply with the law, brief the entire Committee, and obtain FISA warrants whenever Americans are the target of surveillance.

The Constitution is our most cherished possession. Indeed, it is our most powerful weapon in the fight against those who would do us harm.

Respectfully,

Jane Harman

Alcee L. Hastings

Silvestre Reyes

Leonard Boswell

Robert E. (Bud) Cramer, Jr.

Anna G. Eshoo

Rush D. Holt

C.A. (Dutch) Ruppersberger

John F. Tierney