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RE: No need for change
Well the USA has no right to tap telephone calls in another country. It may request that the other country do it for them but such requests are (prior to 911 anyway) routinely refused because that would often be illegal under local law.
However, using the immense technological resources of the NSA, the USA can crudely tap into almost any radio-based trunk services, cell phones and satellites (all radio signals on earth travel up to space) capturing millions of calls and then try to narrow down on a particular person. Extracting a particular single call from this broadband traffic is difficult and iffy - they may get one call and not the next. Domestic law requires all calls to be captured in case a later one provides exoneration
The problem for the Administration is that NSA inevitably captures the calls of thousands of US citizens as well as foreigners as it goes about its normal business - which it has been doing since WWII. This is its fundamental charter and reason for exisence stemming from Pearl Harbour. So it cannot ever testify that it is not monitoring US citizens in its international interception operations.
Anyway, I believe that most US citizens would feel that international telecommunications are fair game for the foreign intelligence agencies: CIA , NSA, FBI and NRO. Their view would be that terrorism usualy starts overseas, and citizens travelling abroad should not adversely impact on intelligence collection. I personally don't agree with this view because I think we should respect the laws of other countries, but I think the majority of US citizens would, and therefore such legislation will be passed.
Yes, I agree that the motivation is probably fear, but I don't accept that as a justification. This is the home of the brave and it is high time we started acting like it in defense of our hard-won legislated freedoms.
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RE: No need for change
You are logically correct that foreign citizens should have the same privacy rights as US citizens.
I wasn't implying that at all. I was stating that a US citizen calling another US citizen, who happens to be overseas, could have their call tapped without a warrant regardless of their guilt or innocence. My question then is, why does a US citizen lose their rights with the US government just because they happen to be outside of the country?
Many of us probably feel that this kind of thing is justified in the post 911 War on Terror ... but it certainly does appear that this US administration has gone overboard in tossing out priceless justice provisions in our free society to make life easier for the intelligence agencies.
The reason is simply fear. It is the same type of fear that people have with regards to radiation; it is an invisible threat that can strike at any time withour warning. It's a powerful motivator, and politicians have always capitalized on it. The only defence is vigilance, and a healthy level of outrage.
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