Bush and Congress serve up a surveillance law

THE UNINTENDED consequence of the expansion of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 will be the legalization of wiretapping of any and all Americans and businesses in this country ("New law expands power to wiretap," Page A1, Aug. 6).

Although President Bush says that revising FISA would expand governmental powers to eavesdrop on suspected foreign terrorists, there is no technology nor science that identifies any suspicious communication without scanning all communications.

The simple truth is that terrorists or anyone planning a terrorist act will use unknown and anonymous telephone routing numbers. As an expert in telephone routing and tracking systems, I can assure you that there is no way on this earth to identify such calls unless you are listening in on all calls.

Thus, in passing the Protect America Act of 2007, which the president signed into law, Congress has authorized the clandestine wiretapping of all Americans and all calls and communications to and from anywhere, whether private or commercial.

Most troubling is that the primary reason for limiting judicial review is that such oversight would determine that any implementation of this legislation requires the targeting all Americans.

Given this administration's record on leveling with the American public, the consequences of this measure might not be unintended at all.

DANIEL E. SPEERS
Haverhill

The writer, a former AT&T researcher, holds a number of patents for call management systems.

IF WE want to preserve what is left of our civil liberties, we may have to keep Congress in session year round. Not that the legislative branch is doing a good job preserving checks and balances -- far from it. But it appears that all it takes is an impending recess and cranking up the politics of fear for the executive branch to get its way.

As Charlie Savage pointed out in yesterday's Globe, the last time Congress gave the president what he wanted so that they could stampede out of town for a recess, we got the Military Commissions Act of 2006. An amendment that would have preserved the 500-year-old right of habeas corpus lost by just a handful of votes. Ten months later, with the Democrats "in control," we still haven't reversed that decision.

If it takes fear to motivate Congress, maybe each member should be sent a DVD of the 1998 Hollywood film about the National Security Agency, "Enemy of the State." That may be the only hope we have of saving our fundamental freedoms.

NANCY MURRAY
Boston

The writer is director of education at ACLU of Massachusetts.

IN THE mid-1970s, when what was known as Czechoslovakia was part of the former Soviet Union, I was traveling through that part of Europe. I became friends with some Czechs I'd met in Budapest. There were subsequent trips, hiking with these new friends. Occasionally I would call, one time for the ingredients in potato pancakes an aunt had made for us late one night.

Years later I learned that my friend was hauled in by the police for questioning following each of my calls. Sometimes the questioning became rough. One such time they wanted to know who "garlic" was.

My advice: Don't develop relationships with any interesting people who reside outside our borders.

FRANK BARRINGER
South Dartmouth