Peregrine

On August 5th, 2007, President Bush signed S.1927 into law, after it passed a Senate vote (60 for, 28 against, 12 present but not voting) on the 3rd, and a House vote (227 for, 183 against, 23 present but not voting).

The new law amends the “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 to provide additional procedures for authorizing certain acquisitions of foreign intelligence information and for other purposes.” It was sponsored by Sen. Mitch McConnell [R-KY] and Sen. Christopher Bond [R-MO].

I haven’t had time, yet, to fully read the resulting text of the bill (there are always amendments to bills as they pass through Congress), so I will reserve any specific commentary for a latter time. However, it appears that this new law could seriously affect privacy under certain circumstances in the United States.