Suit demands details on secret court's wiretap ruling

[sabra]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/28/MNGOCOCCVD1.DTL


Suit demands details on secret court's wiretap ruling
Group seeks to learn if program requires individual warrants

A privacy rights group sued the Justice Department on Tuesday to try to pry loose a ruling by a secret court that the Bush administration says approved its clandestine wiretapping program.

The suit, if it succeeds, should answer an important question about the future of the program: whether the court will require individual warrants, with specific evidence, before allowing the government to intercept phone calls and e-mails between Americans and alleged terrorists in foreign countries.

...

The ruling's existence was disclosed Jan. 17 by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the judge had approved the surveillance, after lengthy negotiations, and that the program was now operating under authority of the foreign intelligence court.

Gonzales did not say, however, whether the judge was requiring a warrant in each case or instead had given overall approval to the program. The attorney general has refused to make the order public, although the Justice Department sent copies to the federal judge in San Francisco and the appeals court reviewing the Detroit ruling.

[Supersedeas]

1. My guess: Al Gonzo will viciously oppose any such attempt at open/honest government