The Protect America Act of 2007: A Framework for Improving Intelligence Collection in the War on Terror

Jeffrey F. Addicott, St. Mary's University School of Law

Abstract

The Protect America Act of 2007: Modifications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (Protect America Act) was not the first revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), nor will it be the last. When the United States Congress amended FISA by passing the Protect America Act in early August 2007, its action was unusually swift. Although some critics chastised Congress for passing the bill, there were certainly a variety of pragmatic reasons for favoring the Protect America Act, in part because it provided a positive framework for ensuring that the proper rule of law in this area kept pace with the changes in technology, but also because it rightly appreciated the emerging threats to national well-being from both al-Qa’eda-styled terrorism and other foreign machinations. If one couples the phenomenal technical advances in telecommunication technology with an acknowledgement of the growing threats to national security posed by both mega-terrorism and hostile nations, it is fundamentally obvious that the nation’s intelligence community must be properly equipped with the necessary tools to protect the nation. As Congress continues to revise and amend FISA, the Protect America Act of 2007 certainly serves as a reminder of the many policy and legal tensions that the United States of America faces as the country grapples with balancing cherished civil liberties against the need for increased security and government accountability in this post-9/11 world.

Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of the efficacy of the Protect America Act in the context of the new ground it so boldly staked out. Given the fact that the United States of America is in a state of war with the al-Qa’eda terror network and al-Qa’eda-styled terrorists, there is no question that providing the U.S. intelligence community with the proper means to effectively combat the evolving threats to national security represents a legal and policy challenge that requires thoughtful attention from all three branches of the government.