Yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled, "Strengthening FISA: Does the Protect America Act Protect Americans' Civil Liberties and Enhance Security?" During the hearing Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell testified and generally spoke very carefully in response to proposals to change legislation, as he did last week before House committees.

CQ ($$) reports; "Democrats made it clear Tuesday that they do not intend to be stampeded [again] into passing new legislation on the government's authority to conduct surveillance for counterterrorism purposes." With a guarded disposition, McConnell "underscored three things the administration wants to be included in the next bill: the ability to surveil, without a warrant, communications that pass through the United States between two points overseas; a provision to 'compel the private sector' to cooperate with government surveillance and provide liability protection for companies that have cooperated; and a warrant requirement for surveillance of targeted U.S. citizens located in the United States." With the same cautious nature, McConnell also appeared somewhat open to changing several key provisions of the Protect America Act.

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) commented, "The Protect America Act provides no meaningful check by the FISA Court, or by the Congress, for that matter. It does not even require the government to have its own internal procedures for protecting the privacy of these Americans. As I said, it may be a spouse calling from here to a husband or wife who's overseas protecting America."

Yet the administration still has not provided the committee with legal documents about its warrantless spying activities, making updating FISA difficult. McConnell was sure to note that he is not involved in negotiations over what documents the White House will provide Congress.

And from the latest Watcher, Wiretapping Law the Focus of House Hearings.

Act Now and Stop Unlimited Wiretap Authority!

A series of hearings are now underway intended to examine and create legislative changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in light of the Protect America Act (S.1927) that was rushed through Congress and signed into law in Aug. Yesterday the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing titled, "Warrantless Surveillance and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act: The Role of Checks and Balances in Protecting Americans' Privacy Rights," to follow up on part one held Sept. 5. The two witnesses were Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Kenneth Wainstein, assistant attorney general for national security. McConnell told the Committee that the he doesn't know how many Americans' phone and e-mail conversations have been inadvertently overheard in the process of foreign-oriented surveillance.

The concern was also raised that the bill was written too broadly. A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report addresses the vague nature of the law, highlighting sections that may be open to different interpretations. TPMMuckraker.com also followed the events of yesterday's hearing.

During the Judiciary hearing Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) gave some hard hitting opening remarks; "the power to invade people's privacy must not be exercised unchecked. As we consider how to fix the Protect America Act, we must restore the fundamental freedoms that have been lost because of our recklessness. We must focus surveillance on terrorist activity and provide meaningful court review to protect the rights of Americans who will be spied on in our country."

The House Select Intelligence Committee held a separate hearing yesterday, and will hold another hearing on FISA on Thursday hearing testimony from McConnell. According to CongressDaily, the House Intelligence Committee plans to mark up legislation Oct. 4 covering long-term changes to the FISA law.

Chairman Silvestre Reyes' (D-TX) press release stated, "The scope of the so-called 'Protect America Act' passed in early August is extremely troubling, and the witnesses before us today voiced strong concerns that it does not protect Americans' civil liberties and could authorize a broad range of warrantless surveillance. We also heard concerns that the House Intelligence Committee will not be able to conduct meaningful oversight if the Administration continues to deny access to critical documents about the NSA surveillance program."

Future hearings to look out for: On Thursday Sept.20 the House Select Intelligence Committee will hold a hearing at 9 am and on Tuesday Sept. 25 the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing 9:30 am.

The Roundtable on Religion and Social Welfare Policy addressed the effects of September 11 on Muslim charities in an interview with Salam Al-Marayati, the executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Charity is especially important during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, which begins tonight (Sept.12) at sundown. According to the interview Treasury has not had an open dialogue with Muslim charities for two or three years. Despite continued government suspicion of Muslim charities people will not stop donating to charity, but the donations will be made through informal outlets.

Al-Marayati comments during the interview; "I'm worried that a lot of money is going overseas without any regulation, without organizations accounting for those monies. In other words, maybe a lot of cash is now being transferred and so the government has, in effect, undermined its own efforts for trying to regulate charitable giving."

There are only a few Muslim-American charities left in the U.S. Before 9/11 Muslim organizations were learning how to apply for government grants, but now Muslim charities work with the government much less. According to Al-Marayati, "because of political concerns, the government is not supporting Muslim non-profits as much for fear of being attacked by the political and ideological right in America for supporting Muslim charities."

We always were concerned about the government's sledgehammer approach — if somebody from one charity does something that's questionable, they'll just go ahead and shut it down.

The Justice Department will not criminally charge former top executive and other former high-ranking officers of Chiquita Brands International over the company's payments to a Colombian organization on the State Department's list of terrorist groups. After the company pleaded guilty, three of its officers were under investigation for authorizing and approving the payments after federal prosecutors warned them that it was violating the nation's anti-terrorism laws. Chiquita argued that the three men who had disclosed the bribe payments to Justice officials continued the payments while waiting for advice that never came from then-Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff and then-Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.

The unauthorized illegal wiretapping of nonprofits, amongst others, has already been made known and now, that authority has been expanded. We are calling on you to urge Congress to act now and revisit the temporary fix to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that passed in August. The Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA), S. 1927, gives the government the power to wiretap anyone, including U.S. citizens, without any court approval as long as the "target" of the surveillance is located outside the U.S.

Two representatives of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes met with Detroit area Muslim and Arab-Americans to discuss charitable giving in preparation for Ramadan, a Muslim holy month beginning next week. During Ramadan donations to charity are typically at their highest because of a religious requirement, zakat, a practice of giving to good causes. The meeting was organized by the U.S. Attorney's Office and Muslim leaders to address questions and concerns. During the last year FBI and other federal agencies have raided three Detroit-area Muslim charities, Life for Relief and Development, Al-Mabarrat Charitable Organization and Goodwill Charitable Organization Inc. Nobody from any of the charities has been charged with a crime, and only the Goodwill Charitable Organization has been shut down and designated. "Audience members unsuccessfully sought absolute assurances they could not be prosecuted for giving to a charity that is legal today but could be deemed a terrorist front tomorrow."

Frustrated attendees also wondered how they could help suffering friends and relatives in Gaza or southern Lebanon without working through agencies that must deal with Hamas or Hezbollah, both designated terrorist organizations by the U.S. government. Linda Mansour of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said most donors are average citizens who want their money to go for food and medicine but now fear prosecution. Michael Rosen, a policy adviser with the Treasury Department, said the government wants to establish a safe and approved means of providing humanitarian aid but has not done so yet. Until then, "donors do have to do their due diligence," he said.