Details on Surveillance Released

DETAILS ON SURVEILLANCE RELEASED
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com]
Telecommunications companies that assisted the government's warrantless-surveillance program after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks relied on periodic letters bearing the legal endorsement of the attorney general, and in one case the authorization of the White House legal counsel, according to a Senate intelligence report released Friday. The report, which accompanies and explains the reasons behind the Senate Intelligence Committee's approval of an update to the law that oversees government intelligence surveillance activities, gives incremental new details of how the White House deployed a now contentious program run by the National Security Agency without seeking court warrants. The committee's update to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, contains a clause granting legal immunity to telecom providers that assisted the program, a measure that has met with strong opposition from other members of Congress.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119344961574573627.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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WHITE HOUSE TO LET COMMITTEE LEADERS SEE SURVEILLANCE DOCS
[SOURCE: The Hill, AUTHOR: Manu Raju]
The White House will allow Senate Judiciary Committee leaders to see documents on the Bush administration’s secret surveillance program in an effort to win their support for legal immunity for telecommunications firms that allegedly participated in the program. The concession attempts to break a long impasse between Democrats and the White House over whether Congress should be allowed to inspect confidential documents that could explain why telephone companies need retroactive protections from lawsuits. But Democrats and a key Republican signaled Thursday that the Judiciary panel should have access to the documents before voting on a bill that would provide immunity and new oversight of warrantless surveillance. Telephone companies face about 40 lawsuits from plaintiffs who accuse them of giving private information to the government. The Bush administration is trying to kill those suits by arguing that the companies acted in the interest of national security. Critics say that if telephone companies and the administration did nothing illegal, they should not be absolved from litigation.
http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/white-house-to-let-committee-leaders...