Rep. McCaul Rejects Obama's Plan To Add Privacy Advocate to FISA Court

Thinks concern about civil liberties could delay waging war on terror

WASHINGTON, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A White House idea to add a privacy advocate in the secret court overseeing National Security Agency phone-data logging is a mistake, key U.S. Republicans said.

"I don't think that's the right way to go," House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, told NBC's "Meet the Press."

He was responding to President Obama's suggestion in a news conference Friday U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court procedures could be changed "to make sure civil-liberties concerns have an independent voice in appropriate cases by ensuring that the government's position is challenged by an adversary."