Snip from AP item:
The Justice Department, easing a Bush administration policy, said Wednesday it has decided to give an independent body authority to monitor the government's controversial domestic spying program.
In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this authority has been given to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it already has approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaida or an associated terror group.
The court orders approving collection of international communications _ whether it originates in the United States or abroad _ was issued Jan. 10, according to the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D- Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.
"As a result of these orders, any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court," Gonzales wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
Link. See also this related report from earlier in the week, "Pentagon, CIA check U.S. suspects' bank records" — Link. (Thanks, Richard Forno)
Reader comment:
B.D. says,
There are apparently some skeptics of the news reported by Xeni yesterday that the Bush administration plans to seek out judicial review of it's surveillance program. As quoted in the link here, the administration may be seeking a blanket approval rather than a case by case approval.
