[Infowarrior] - U.S. Officials Agree to Release Domestic Spying Documents

[Richard Forno]

U.S. Officials Agree to Release Domestic Spying Documents

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 31, 2007; 1:50 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/31/AR2007013100
921_pf.html

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and other officials said they have
agreed to turn over classified documents about the government's domestic
spying program to the congressional judiciary and intelligence committees as
early as today, ending a standoff that had included threats of subpoenas
from Capitol Hill.

The agreement follows Gonzales's announcement two weeks ago that the Bush
administration was abandoning a controversial program that allowed the
National Security Agency to spy on Americans without warrants because it now
has approval for the monitoring from a secret intelligence court.

But the administration has refused to release the court's Jan. 10 orders
publicly, and leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees had been
rebuffed in their demands for copies of the documents.

Gonzales--at a briefing to announce the formation of a new "human
trafficking unit" in the Justice Department--downplayed the conflict with
lawmakers.

"It's never been the case where we said we would never provide the access,"
Gonzales said.

Officials said the documents, including court orders and the applications
that led to them, would be provided to Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick J.
Leahy (D-Vt.) and ranking Republican member Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

Some members and staff on the House and Senate Intelligence committees also
will have access to the records, authorities said. Some of those people were
previously briefed on details of the program because they have the necessary
security clearances.

Gonzales said the orders will not be released publicly, however, because the
subject matter is "highly classified."

Leahy said he welcomed the administration's agreement to turn over the court
orders.

"Only with an understanding of the contours of the wiretapping program and
the scope of the court's orders can the Judiciary Committee determine
whether the administration has reached the proper balance to protect
Americans while following the law and the principles of checks and
balances," Leahy said in a statement. "I look forward to reviewing the
court's orders and then deciding what further oversight or legislative
action is necessary."

Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, President Bush authorized the NSA
to monitor telephone calls between the United States and overseas without
warrants if one of the parties was believed to be linked to al-Qaeda or
related groups. The program's existence was first disclosed by media reports
in December 2005.

Critics, including both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, said the spying
was illegal under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, and
unconstitutional. But administration officials said the NSA program could
not be accommodated under FISA and that Bush had the authority to authorize
the wiretapping on his own.

The administration abruptly changed course earlier this month, however, by
obtaining approval for the spying from the 11-member court that administers
FISA, a 1978 law governing clandestine surveillance in the United States.

The precise outlines and parameters of the new effort is unclear because the
government has refused to publicly release documents or other details.
Several sources familiar with the program have said it is a hybrid that
includes both individual warrants and the authority for eavesdropping on
more broadly defined groups of people.

The NSA spying effort prompted a series of legal challenges around the
country, including a case in Michigan in which a federal judge ruled that
the program was unconstitutional. The Justice Department argues that the new
arrangement renders that lawsuit moot, and attorneys are scheduled to offer
oral arguments in the case later today at the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of
Appeals in Cincinnati.