As we reported yesterday, Admiral Michael McConnell, the head of the U.S. intelligence community, goes before the House Judiciary Committee today to defend the August revision of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. But he’s also seeking to salvage his reputation as a straight shooter following a recent fusillade of inflammatory and false comments about the new law, known as the Protect America Act. Since the law, which Democrats mistrust, largely allows domestic-to-international surveillance to proceed on McConnell’s say-so, restoring trust is imperative for him — lest Congressional Democrats, as they’ve promised, scale the law back.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=179862