Angle falsely claimed Dems' bill would be first to require a court order to intercept terrorism suspects' calls to U.S.

SUMMARY: On Special Report, Jim Angle falsely claimed that proposed revisions to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) would, for the first time, require the federal government to obtain a court order to intercept the communications of terrorism suspects abroad when they call the United States. Angle asserted that "even requiring warrants for terrorists calling the U.S. from abroad is a major departure, something the law has never required since it was passed some 30 years ago." In fact, with few exceptions, FISA, as originally enacted in 1978, required the government to obtain a court order to conduct "electronic surveillance," which FISA defines in part as "the acquisition by an electronic, mechanical, or other surveillance device of the contents of any wire communication to or from a person in the United States, without the consent of any party thereto, if such acquisition occurs in the United States." It was only in August that Congress categorically excluded from the warrant requirement any "surveillance directed at a person reasonably believed to be located outside of the United States." That exclusion is due to expire in February 2008.

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