El Paso Reporter Explains How He Got 'FISA' Scoop from Spy Chief

By: Sarah Weber Chris Roberts, a reporter for the El Paso Times, got the scoop of a lifetime recently when Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell made some controversial comments about the Bush administration's wiretapping programs during an interview.

The reactions to Roberts' interview with McConnell, which was posted in its entirety on the Times' Web site earlier this week, were swift and strong, from around the globe. "I don't like being in the news," Roberts told E&P today. "I don't think that's really the issue. The issue is what he talked about and what he said."

He added: "I was kind of amazed" that he kept talking."

Much of Washington is aghast that McConnell addressed what had been confidential information, particularly since Congress was forced to remain mum on the issue until it voted on an amendment to the original Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA) in early August.

Civil liberties groups are also up in arms over McConnell's statements. Jameel Jaffer, the director of the ACLU's national security project, asked publicly, "If this ostensibly sensitive information can be released now, why could it not be released two months ago, when the public and Congress desperately needed it?"

At the center of this storm is Roberts, an El Paso Times reporter for two-and-a-half years who has covered military stories for the paper, and well as Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D--Texas), who was recently appointed chairman of the
House Intelligence Committee.

In an interview with McConnell, who was joined by Reyes, Roberts was able to elicit an unusually frank assessment of previously classified information from the director -- something fairly rare for reporters dealing with the tight-lipped Bush administration.

Roberts says he knew ahead of time that he wanted to address the FISA issue. But that was not the sole basis for the interview. Roberts had also been covering a border security conference--which McConnell was in town attending--and had questions regarding the director's stance on allowing first-generation U.S. citizens to serve in the intelligence community, and on terrorist activity on the Southwest border.

However, when Roberts let McConnell's handlers know he intended to ask the director about FISA, he was met with opposition.

"They originally told me FISA was off the table," he says. "I told them that was a problem, and that we would at least put in the story that he declined to talk about it."

After hearing this, the decision was amended, and Roberts got the go-ahead to ask about FISA. That's when things got interesting.

"Because of the original reluctance to talk about" FISA, says Roberts, "I started off by saying, 'Let's get this out of the way.' But then the interview was dominated by FISA."

McConnell addressed issues that the Bush administration had refused to address for over a year. Among his more interesting statements was the first acknowledgment by a government official that private communications companies
had been involved in the roundup of domestic correspondence. Roberts was taken aback by McConnell's frankness on such a touchy subject.

"I really assumed that it would be a fairly short part of the interview," Roberts says. "But toward the end of that part of [the interview], he said something about how it was a complicated subject," one with details that McConnell wanted to nail down.

The end result was an interview that soon got picked up by The Associated Press and others and landed in national newspapers. The El Paso Times put up the entire transcript on its Web site, and even had it copyrighted.

Online Editor Jay Koester told E&P that after the transcript was posted, it has become the biggest story of the month
for the paper's Web site.

There has been speculation in the press that the candid interview on confidential matters was an attempt by McConnell to defend himself and the program to the public. Though Roberts did not want to speculate about the
director's motivations, he did observe that McConnell seemed pretty cool under pressure.

"He did not seem upset," recalls Roberts. "I think he's obviously coming off a severe battering of his reputation" because of the fight over FISA, "and I have a feeling that's probably part of what motivated him."

Whatever the motivations were behind McConnell's answers, the end result was something that was obviously important for readers to have access to, Roberts adds.

As of today, McConnell has not issued a statement regarding his interview with Roberts. Asked whether McConnell or his representatives have contacted him since the sit-down, Roberts simply replied: "No."