An August interview with the El Paso Times didn’t confirm telco c...

sector,'” he said. McConnell said that he hadn’t asked the White House for the right to declassify information revealed for the first time in the Texas paper, and he didn’t need to. The president delegates declassification to the intelligence director, he said. Disclosing surveillance details to the Times “was a judgment call,” McConnell said. Committee chairman Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., focused questions to McConnell on his rejection of HR-3356, a failed bill that would have updated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The committee had developed the legislation after talks with the intelligence director. On the surface, McConnell said, the bill seemed to deal with his three main needs: no warrant requirement for overseas surveillance, private sector cooperation, and a mandate for warrants when targeting American surveillance. But McConnell’s lawyers decided parts of the bill could be read as derailing its intent, he said. Much of McConnell’s testimony reprised his comments Tuesday to the House Judiciary Committee (CD Sept 19 p7). Asked whether he would accept more-explicit FISA bans on privacy abuses, McConnell largely echoed testimony Tuesday by Kenneth Wainstein, Justice Department assistant attorney general. “As long as we read it over to make sure there are no unintended consequences,” McConnell said. The American Civil Liberties Union was also on the scene Thursday, deriding McConnell’s appearances this week as “exaggeration,” “outright fibbing” and part of a “charm offensive” intended to “gut” FISA. The committee cancelled a member-witness period set for the hearing. Later that day, Committee member Rep. Jane Harman (D-Calif.) submitted what would have been her testimony. Harman belonged to the “Gang of 8” regularly briefed on the Terrorist Surveillance Program. “The law can and must accommodate” the program, she said, urging that Congress “come together” to ensure needed changes are made. “It would be truly short-sighted to give this or any future White House a blank check, and to neuter the crucial oversight roles played responsibly for almost 30 years by the Intelligence Committees and the FISA Court,” Harman said.