GOP plan would allow spying without warrants

A plan by Senate Republicans to step up oversight of the National Security Agency's (NSA) domestic surveillance program would also give legislative sanction for the first time to long-term eavesdropping on US citizens without a court warrant. Civil liberties advocates called the proposed oversight inadequate and the licensing of eavesdropping without warrants unnecessary and unwise. The Republican proposal appears likely to win approval from the full Senate, despite Democratic opposition. It would give congressional approval to the eavesdropping program much as it was secretly authorized by President Bush after the 2001 terrorist attacks, with limited notification to a handful of congressional leaders. The NSA would be permitted to intercept the international phone calls and email messages of people in the United States if there was "probable cause to believe that one party to the communication is a member, affiliate or working in support of a terrorist group or organization," according to a written summary of the proposal. The finding of probable cause would not be reviewed by any court. But after 45 days, the attorney general would be required to drop the eavesdropping on that target, seek a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court or explain under oath to two new congressional oversight subcommittees why he could not seek a warrant. In an emergency, the existing FISA statute permits the government to eavesdrop for 72 hours before getting a warrant, and for 15 days after a declaration of war. The Republican proposal would permit eavesdropping with no warrant for 45-day periods, with no limit on how many times they could be renewed. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are trying to limit the scope of any investigation into how Bush's secret domestic-surveillance program has operated. The dual-track effort is designed to protect the Bush administration from an all-out congressional inquiry into the secret program. The Republican-controlled Senate intelligence panel voted down a Democratic proposal for a complete investigation into the surveillance by the NSA by the full 15-member intelligence committee. Democrats complained that they had been shut out of discussions with the White House that led to the agreement. The White House contends that Bush has the constitutional authority to order the eavesdropping as commander-in-chief as well as congressional approval in the form of an authorization for use of military force against al-Qaida that lawmakers enacted on Sept. 14, 2001. Most Democrats and some Republicans reject that interpretation and contend the authorization was not meant to cover warrantless, domestic spying. They say the NSA program may violate the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which requires the government to obtain warrants for all electronic eavesdropping inside the United States. In the Senate, a handful of Republicans has been working to give the president statutory authority to approve the NSA program. Meanwhile, Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that he wants Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to testify again before his committee about the legal rationale for the NSA program. Specter said he worried that Gonzales' subsequent written responses to the committee suggested that the administration was conducting other secret programs. "The letter that he sent to clarify his testimony raises a lot more questions," Specter said. "There is a suggestion in his letter that there are other intelligence programs which are currently under way."