US: Soldiers Case Shows Law Needs Fixing

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., right, accompanied by House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio, gestures as he speaks to reporters outside the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Aug. 1, 2007, following a breakfast meeting with President Bush. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci - AP)

Asked to comment on the soldiers' case, a spokesman for National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell declined.

Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978 to ensure the rights of U.S. citizens by providing rules for their surveillance within the United States and abroad. It created a category of warrants used to investigate suspected spies, terrorists and other national security threats.

Complicating the question of what constitutes domestic surveillance is a fact of modern communications: Millions of calls placed in other countries by one foreigner to another are routed through the United States because some of the world's most efficient communications networks reside here.

The debate over whether and how to update the surveillance law has been simmering for months. The administration and like-minded Republicans have argued that technology, such as disposable cell phones and the Internet, has outpaced the effectiveness of the law and thus has hampered the government's ability to go after threats quickly.

In a Fox News interview this week, House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, went further than most officials in saying there is a need for change. He said a court ruling earlier this year prohibits U.S. intelligence services "from listening to two terrorists in other parts of the world, where the communication could come through the United States."

In recent days, the administration has pressured the Democratic-controlled Congress to act before it leaves this weekend for a monthlong recess.

Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the administration isn't seeking anything nefarious. "We just want to make sure that when we target foreign intelligence from a foreign terrorist in another country, we can do it immediately," he said.

Said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., chairwoman of the House Homeland Security subcommittee on intelligence: "The tweaks that are necessary should be agreeable on a bipartisan basis _ and not be used as a political witch to game the system."

About 20 miles outside of Baghdad, insurgents in Iraq ambushed an Army unit from Fort Drum, N.Y., on May 12. Three soldiers disappeared, and five were killed, including an Iraqi.

The body of one missing solider _ Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. _ was found in the Euphrates River on May 23.

Thousands of U.S. and Iraqi forces combed through fields, neighborhoods and even sewage-polluted irrigation ditches in an effort to rescue Pvt. Byron W. Fouty and Spec. Alex R. Jimenez. Two soldiers died during the search.

But the bodies of Fouty and Jimenez have yet to be found.

Calls to the families seeking reaction were not immediately returned.