http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/nation/16595558.htm

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Key lawmakers learn details of spying program

Feb. 1, 2007
By GREG GORDON
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday turned over to key legislators copies of a secret court's "highly classified" orders spelling out how the administration has stopped wiretapping suspected terrorists without warrants and is now spying with judicial supervision.

The decision averts a confrontation that might have brought congressional subpoenas.

The classified documents lay out details of a secret arrangement approved by a judge on an 11-member national security court that puts the spying program under its jurisdiction. The material was delivered to members of the House and Senate intelligence committees late in the day, congressional aides said.

The documents will also be made available to Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the panel's ranking Republican, both of whom have asked to review the new arrangement.

Leahy, Specter and members of the intelligence committees have voiced concern that the eavesdropping on some Americans' overseas phone calls and e-mails may have violated their constitutional rights.

"The president has made the right decision in changing his previous course of unilaterally reauthorizing the warrantless surveillance program, to now following the law by seeking court approval for these wiretaps," Leahy said.

But he said he would "have to look at the court's order to determine whether the administration has reached that proper balance to protect Americans while following the law."

Specter called the move "a significant step forward" but said he would reserve judgment until he had reviewed the documents.

The National Security Agency started the surveillance program shortly after 9-11 and ran it for years without warrants or judicial review and in apparent violation of constitutional protections.

The New York Times disclosed the program in December 2005, provoking an outcry from civil libertarians and others