It’s become a cottage industry —- scaring the bejesus out of the citizenry in an effort to push U.S. House members into following the example of their Senate counterparts and pass legislation giving the administration legal authority to secretly surveil phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens in this country without court approval.

Surveillance advocates from President Bush on down are disingenuously mischaracterizing the law —- and the already vast power of the government to gather intelligence information electronically —- in order to gain the votes needed to send such legislation to the president for signature.

To set the record straight, here are some key points concerning the surveillance powers of government —- current and desired:

Q. Despite the fact that the House has not yet caved to the president and the Senate and permanently expanded the power of the government to surreptitiously surveil Americans’ international calls and e-mails, is our government still able to conduct necessary foreign intelligence surveillance?

A. Yes. The sky has not fallen and will not fall. The government has had and continues to have robust power and lawful authority to monitor calls and e-mails of known or suspected terrorists.

Q. As an American citizen within the United States, aren’t my calls and e-mails protected against the government listening in, unless the government suspects me of unlawful activity, including working with or communicating with terrorists?

A. Such calls should be, and are, protected against warrantless surveillance by the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. However, under the “Protect America Act,” in effect from August 2007 until the middle of February of this year, the government was given vastly expanded power to listen in to any of your calls or e-mails, so long as a government official “reasonably believed” one party was outside the United States. In other words, any call you made with or e-mail you sent to, someone in another country —- a friend, a relative, a business associate or anyone else —- could be monitored by the government without any suspicion you were doing something wrong or that you were conspiring with a member of al-Qaida.

Full article here.