Wiretap Policy Reversal

[Effloresce]

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...onalnews-print

Bush administration will now ask for court OK for surveillance it previously said President didn't need

Newsday Washington Bureau

January 18, 2007

WASHINGTON - Facing pressure from lawsuits and a Democratic Congress, the Bush administration reversed course yesterday, saying it will now submit to an independent court for approval the controversial warrantless wiretapping that the president had ordered on his own asserted authority.

President George W. Bush will not renew his 45-day executive order for the 5-year-old Terrorist Surveillance Program when it expires in the next few weeks, and will go through the special court instead, officials said.

The unexpected announcement appeared to be a concession to critics who have charged since the National Security Agency program was revealed a year ago that Bush had acted outside of the law when he authorized it after 9/11.

Critics and members of Congress cautiously welcomed the step, but they pointed out that the administration insists the president still has the inherent authority to order surveillance without a court order.

They also complained about the sketchy details released yesterday, raising questions about whether the special court approval was for the entire program or for individual targets, and about how many U.S. persons are being spied on.

"The announcement raises more questions than it answers," said one critic, Kate Martin of the Center on National Security Studies.

Ann Beeson, the ACLU attorney handling a lawsuit challenging the program's legality, added, "The timing is fishy."

The announcement came a day before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee and two weeks before oral arguments in the ACLU suit before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Gonzales is likely to face hard questions today at that hearing, said Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the committee chairman, and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the ranking member.

Both lamented that it took the administration five years to comply with the law.

The change in policy was revealed in a letter from Gonzales to Leahy and Specter. It said the surveillance "will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court."

That court was created by Congress in the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act specifically to approve government surveillance of the electronic communications of people in the United States.

The letter said the administration had been exploring FISA court approval since spring 2005 - before The New York Times revealed the program in December 2005.

Last week, on Jan. 10, a FISA court judge issued orders authorizing the government to target communications into or out of the United States to other countries of suspected terrorists.

The letter said the order solved the key objection raised by Bush and top intelligence officials such as Michael Hayden, the former National Security Agency director who now heads the CIA, that the FISA process did not allow quick and agile surveillance.

Senior Justice officials, in a background briefing yesterday, said that the judge issued more than one order, and that they were like other FISA court orders, limited to 90 days and under the judge's close watch.

But the officials stressed that the order was "innovative" and "complex," though they declined to elaborate.

They said the government did not submit the program for approval, but did submit applications for surveillance.

Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.

This is great news.

[homechicago]

Does W understand anything in the realm of American politics? Seriously...

[Effloresce]

I think he does, but he simply doesn't care.