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10
less of other compelling interests. To go in that direction
would bring a new instability and peril.®
In 1978, Attorney General Griffin B. Bell testifying on the same
subject before this Committee, stated:
If enacted,
the bill would
stand
as a significant
monu-
ment to our national commitment to democratic control of
intelligence functions...
As President Carter noted when
he announced
this bill,
“one of the most difficult tasks in a free society like our
own is the correlation between adequate intelligence to
guarantee
our nation’s security on the one hand,
preservation of basic human
and the
rights on the other.” It is a
very delicate balance to strike, but one which is necessary
in our society. In my view this bill strikes the proper balance. It sacrifices neither our national security nor our
civil liberties, and assures that the dedicated and patriotic
men and women who serve this country in intelligence positions will have the affirmation of Congress that their activities are proper and necessary.
We have now had five years in which to observe in operation the
legislation these two distinguished Attorneys General worked so
hard to enact and about which they spoke so eloquently.
The Committee is of the opionion that FISA did, in fact, strike a
proper balance between the security of the Nation and the individ-
ual rights of its people, that FISA surveillances are being utilized
only to collect legitimate foreign intelligence information, that
such surveillances are being conducted well within the letter and
spirit of the Act, and that adherence
to the substantive and proce-
dural safeguards contained in FISA has not adversely affected the
national intelligence mission.
The Committee recommends that the Act be permitted to continue in effect without amendment.
5 Electronic Surveillance Within the United States for Foreign Intelligence Purposes, Hearings
before the Subcommittee on Intelligence and the Rights of Americans of the Select Committee
on Intelligence, United States Senate, 94th Congress, 2nd Session (1976), Page 76.
* Foreign Intelligence Electronic Surveillance, Hearings before the Subcommittee on Legislation of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, House of Representatives, 95th Congress, 2nd Session (1978), Page 7.
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