Spying bill clears Senate Panel

SPYING BILL CLEARS SENATE PANEL
[SOURCE: Reuters, AUTHOR: Thomas Ferraro]
A bill backed by President George W. Bush to enable a court review of his domestic spying program won the approval on Wednesday of a U.S. Senate panel under election-year pressure to safeguard civil liberties. Bush's Republicans hailed the measure and brushed off Democratic complaints that it could actually further undermine the rights of law-abiding Americans because of what they called loopholes that would expand presidential powers. The bill would clear the way for a secret court created by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to examine the legality of the warrantless surveillance program the White House launched after the September 11 attacks. On a party-line vote of 10-8, the Republican-led panel sent the bill to the full Senate for an uncertain fate ahead of November 7 congressional elections.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=politicsNews&storyID...

* Committee Votes to Expand Warrantless Surveillance Authority
The Senate Judiciary Committee approved several NSA bills today -- two of which would radically expand the President's authority to conduct warrantless surveillance inside the United States. Senator Arlen Specter's (R-Pa.) bill (S. 2453), which Specter revised to accommodate White House requests for greater authority, would ratify and dramatically expand the President's authority to wiretap Americans without judicial approval. Senator Mike DeWine's (R-Ohio) bill (S. 2455) would authorize warrantless wiretapping programs without prior judicial approval and under a lower standard than the Fourth Amendment requires. CDT supports the Specter-Feinstein measure (S. 3001), which, unlike the other bills, restores the constitutional balance of power while addressing the legitimate concerns the Administration has raised. The full Senate could take up the bills as early as next week.
Analysis: Specter and Wilson FISA Bills: http://www.cdt.org/security/nsa/20060913fisa-bill.php

* GOP Leaders Back Bush on Wiretapping, Tribunals
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/AR200609...

* NSA court review bill is sent to full Senate
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20060914/a_capcol14.art.htm

* Senate Panel Sends a Mixed Message on Wiretapping
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-spy14sep14,1,474...