WP: U.S. refuses to free Iranian agents - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

WP: U.S. refuses to free Iranian agents - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com

WP: U.S. refuses to free Iranian agents
Administration resists Tehran's pressure, State Department advise
By Robin Wright
The Washington Post
Updated: 2:56 a.m. ET April 14, 2007
After intense internal debate, the Bush administration has decided to hold on to five Iranian Revolutionary Guard intelligence agents captured in Iraq, overruling a State Department recommendation to release them, according to U.S. officials.

At a meeting of the president's foreign policy team Tuesday, the administration decided the five Iranians will remain in custody and go through a periodic six-month review used for the 250 other foreign detainees held in Iraq, U.S. officials said. The next review is not expected until July, officials say.

The five, seized in a Jan. 11 raid by U.S. forces in the Kurdish city of Irbil, are at the center of increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The decision is certain to further irritate Tehran, which has ratcheted up pressure on the United States and on its allies and even its friends in the Iraqi government to win freedom for the Irbil five.

The decision came as Iraq's government spokesman, on a White House visit Friday, urged better ties. "We feel that the improvement and the better relations between the United States and Iran could minimize -- could make the [Iranian] interference less," Ali Dabbagh said in a news briefing with White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

Divide on how to deal with Iran
Differences over the five Iranians reflect an emerging divide on how to deal with Iran. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went into the meeting Tuesday advising that the men be freed because they are no longer useful, but after a review of options she went along with the consensus, U.S. officials say. Vice President Cheney's office made the firmest case for keeping them. Their capture signals that Iran's actions are monitored and that Iranian operatives face seizure.

The administration has expressed concern about Tehran's role in Iraq. Iran has long aided Shiite militias but more recently has also armed some Sunni militias, officials say. Officials also allege that Iran has provided roadside explosives that have killed U.S. troops. But Washington needs Iran's cooperation to stabilize Iraq.

Since the capture, Iran has threatened not to attend a key meeting in Egypt next month of Iraq's neighbors -- as well as the United States and international groups involved in Iraq -- that Washington hopes will foster cooperation on Iraq. Without Iran, which exerts great influence in Iraq, the meeting could have only a marginal impact, according to Iraqi officials and Middle East experts.

When the Iraqi government did not obtain release of the five detainees, Iran refused to allow a plane carrying Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to fly over Iran en route to Japan last week. Iran has also been pressing the detainees' case at the United Nations.

Link to seizure of British sailors?
Some U.S. officials now say the seizure of 15 British sailors last month by the Revolutionary Guard may have been part of an effort to pressure Washington through Britain, its close ally and the second-largest troop contributor in Iraq. One reason Washington does not want to free the Iranians is to avoid the appearance of a deal to win the 15 Britons freedom last week, U.S. officials acknowledged.

The January raid on Iran's liaison office in Irbil was the second by U.S. troops. In December, U.S. troops in Baghdad nabbed Brig. Gen. Mohsen Chirazi, the No. 3 official in the Revolutionary Guard's elite Quds Force, and Col. Abu Amad Davari. They were soon released under Iraqi government pressure.

In January, the United States again targeted two high-ranking Iranians, including Gen. Minojahar Frouzanda, the Revolutionary Guard intelligence chief, and Mohammed Jafari, deputy head of Iran's National Security Council, U.S. officials say. They eluded capture.

The United States is invoking Iraqi law as well as U.N. Security Council resolutions 1546, 1637 and 1723 authorizing the U.S.-led coalition operating in Iraq as grounds to detain the Iranians. The U.N. resolutions allow the multinational force to take steps to protect itself.

The Irbil five are members of the elite Quds Force, an arm of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps charged with Iran's clandestine foreign operations. The Quds Force has ties to the Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant groups as well as to Iraqi political movements that the United States has supported.

The administration's decision comes at an awkward time. Washington is about to send a fourth message to Iran asking for information on the whereabouts of former FBI agent Robert A. Levinson, who has been missing since he flew to Iran's Kish Island five weeks ago. The Financial Times and Reuters reported Friday that Levinson may have met on Kish Island with Daoud Salahuddin, a convert to Islam once known as David Belfield who is still wanted by the FBI for the 1980 murder in Bethesda of Iranian dissident Ali Tabatabai.

© 2007 The Washington Post Company
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18101894/

Bush asks Congress for more intel powers - Politics - MSNBC.com

Bush asks Congress for more intel powers - Politics - MSNBC.com


Bush asks Congress for more intel powers
Administration wants broader power to monitor terror suspects on U.S. soil
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:35 p.m. ET April 13, 2007
WASHINGTON - The Bush administration asked Congress on Friday to allow monitoring of more foreigners in the United States during intelligence investigations.

The plan is among several proposed changes, which have been in the works for more than a year, that go to the heart of a major U.S. surveillance law.

The administration says the changes are intended to help the government deal with national security threats better by updating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to bring it into line with rapid changes in communications technology.

Civil liberties groups see the government’s effort as a needless power grab.

The proposal would revise the way the government gets warrants from the secret FISA court to investigate suspected terrorists, spies and other apparent national security threats.

Seeking lower burden of proof
The administration wants to be able to monitor foreign nationals on American soil if they are thought to have significant intelligence information, even without known links to a foreign power. Under current law, the government must convince a FISA judge that an individual is an agent of a government, terror group or some other foreign adversary.

The administration also wants new provisions to ease surveillance of people suspected of spreading weapons of mass destruction internationally.

And the administration wants to allow government lawyers to decide whether a FISA court order is needed for electronic eavesdropping based on the target of the monitoring, not the mode of communication or the location where the surveillance is being conducted.

One effect of such a change would be that the National Security Agency would have the authority to monitor foreigners without seeking court approval, even if the surveillance is conducted by tapping phones and e-mail accounts in the United States.

Sneak and peek powers
Most often used by the FBI and the NSA, the 1978 FISA law has been updated several times since it was passed, including in 2001 to allow government access to certain business records.

Among other tools available now, the government can break into homes, hotel rooms and cars to install hidden cameras and listening devices, as well as search drawers, luggage or computer hard drives.

President Bush has been under fire for his program that allows the NSA to monitor international calls and e-mails coming into the United States, when one party in the communication had suspected links to international terror. Bush asked a federal court this year to oversee the operation, known as the terrorist surveillance program.

“This legislation is important to ensure that FISA continues to serve the nation as a means to protect our country from foreign security threats, while also continuing to protect the valued privacy interests and civil liberties of persons located in the United States,” the Justice Department said in a fact sheet released Friday.


Critics say changes ill-conceived
But civil liberties advocates at the American Civil Liberties Union and elsewhere see the changes as a sweeping overhaul that would undermine long-standing protections. Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies said the changes are “poorly conceived” and “not justified,” given a lack of oversight on the government’s current powers.

The Associated Press reported many of the bill’s details this week. Among other changes, the legislation would:

Clarify the standards the FBI and NSA must use to get court orders for basic information about calls and e-mails — such as the number dialed, e-mail address or time and date of the communications. Civil liberties advocates contend the change will make it too easy for the government to access this information.

Triple the life span of a FISA warrant for a non-U.S. citizen from 120 days to one year, allowing the government to monitor much longer without checking in again with a judge. The Justice Department says this would allow the government to focus its resources on cases involving U.S. citizens because it would not have to get as many time-consuming renewals on warrants for cases involving foreigners.

Give telecommunications companies immunity from civil liability for cooperating with any intelligence communications program, such as Bush’s terrorist surveillance program. Pending lawsuits against companies including Verizon and AT&T allege they violated privacy laws by giving phone records to the NSA for the program.

Extend from 72 hours to one week the amount of time the government can conduct surveillance without a court order in emergencies.

© 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18100710/