Few in U.S. are secret wiretap targets

WASHINGTON – Law enforcement officials are targeting fewer than 100 people in the United States for secret court-approved wiretaps aimed at disrupting terrorist networks, the top U.S. intelligence official said in an interview published Wednesday.

The relatively low number of those under surveillance in this country stands in contrast with “thousands” of people overseas whose calls and e-mails are monitored for possible links to terrorism, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said.

“If a terrorist calls in and it’s another terrorist, I think the American public would want us to do surveillance of that U.S. person,” he told the El Paso Times.

Previously, few details about the scope of the U.S.-based surveillance program had been made public.

In the interview with the El Paso newspaper, McConnell attempted to explain the distinction between court-sanctioned surveillance of Americans and the kind of warrantless surveillance that U.S. officials can now conduct under legislation signed into law by President Bush earlier this month.

The new law allows expanded, warrantless eavesdropping on foreigners’ calls and e-mails to people in the United States, as long as the Americans involved are not considered targets of the investigation.

If the U.S. recipient of a call turns out to be a terrorism suspect, law enforcement officials would “just get a warrant,” McConnell said. He described the number of such cases as “manageable.”

“On the U.S. persons side, it’s 100 or less,” he said. “And then, the foreign side – it’s in the thousands.”