More on NSA wiretaps

Panel OKs wiretapping bill

A Republican-controlled Senate panel yesterday approved legislation that would authorize President George W. Bush's controversial warrantless wiretapping program in return for his pledge to submit it for a review by a secret court.

Bush defends wiretaps

A day after a judge in Detroit declared the warrantless wiretapping program unconstitutional, President George W. Bush defended the surveillance by invoking the recent disruption of the alleged airline bombing plot in London.

Wiretap hangup

A federal judge in Detroit dealt the Bush administration a major setback yesterday, ruling for the first time that the president's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordering an immediate end to it.

An issue of politics in review of wiretaps

A legislative proposal to test the constitutionality of President George W. Bush's controversial warrantless wiretapping program would turn over that significant judicial decision to a secret court packed with Republican appointees, federal records show.

Hearing on phone records delayed

A Senate committee chairman yesterday put off plans to force telephone company executives to face questions about a report that they turned over millions of American phone-call records to the National Security Agency so it can hunt for terrorists.

Hide and go seek

Rocked by revelations in the news media, the Bush administration is waging a vigorous campaign to not only defend its secret surveillance of calls and e-mails but also to stamp out efforts to learn more about it.

SECRET SURVEILLANCE: THE NSA

Under fire for data dig

Members of Congress demanded answers from the Bush administration yesterday about a report of a second secret warrantless surveillance program, this one involving government data mining of phone company records of tens of millions of Americans' domestic calls in a hunt for terrorists.

ANALYSIS

Another tangle for Bush

With falling approval ratings and a CIA pick under fire for his role in domestic wiretapping, the last thing President George W. Bush needed yesterday was to have a second surveillance controversy break out into the open.

SECRET SURVEILLANCE: THE NSA

Ellis Henican: Listen up! Uncle Sam has your number

As usual, Earl Long got it right, a good 50 years ahead of his time.

Lots of talk over call database

Tom Pecora, an employment recruiter, had a blunt assessment of yesterday's disclosure that the U.S. government has assembled a vast database of domestic phone calls.

Increase in domestic spying

The federal government increased its domestic surveillance in pursuit of terrorists and spies last year in part because it had more lawyers working on applications for eavesdropping, searches and records requests, a Justice Department official said yesterday.

Ruling sought on Bush wiretapping

Sen. Charles Schumer yesterday entered the legislative fray over the Bush administration's controversial warrantless wiretapping, introducing a bill to put the surveillance program on a fast track to the Supreme Court for a ruling on its legality and constitutionality.

Specter says he'd cut NSA funding

Frustrated about the Bush administration's refusal to give information about its controversial warrantless wiretapping, a Republican committee chairman threatened yesterday to cut off funding for the surveillance program.

Feingold proposes censuring President Bush

A liberal Democrat and potential White House contender is proposing censuring President Bush for authorizing domestic eavesdropping, saying the White House misled Americans about its legality.

Eavesdropping not issue

The Bush administration yesterday persuaded a federal judge that the controversial warrantless wiretapping program played no role in the prosecution of a Virginia Arab-American student on charges he plotted with al-Qaida to assassinate President George W. Bush, according to a defense attorney.

Wiretap probe proposal rejected

The Republican majority on the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday rejected the Democrats' proposal for a probe into the president's warrantless wiretapping program and advanced its own plan to beef up congressional oversight and craft a bill to legalize the controversial eavesdropping.

Wiretap legislation struggles

As Senate Republicans wrestled yesterday with legislation for the controversial warrantless wiretapping program, the Bush administration said there is no need for congressional approval and added there have been no abuses since the surveillance began shortly after the 9/11 attacks.

Senate chairman eyes bill to get wiretap bid to court

The Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday said he is drafting legislation to force the Bush administration to submit its controversial warrantless wiretapping program to a special secret court to determine whether it is constitutional.

A bipartisan challenge

A bipartisan majority of the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday expressed doubts about the legal defense that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales presented for the Bush administration's controversial program of warrantless wiretaps to fight terrorism.

NSA supporter opposes wiretaps

James Bamford, the leading expert on the National Security Agency, has spent much of the last few years defending the highly secretive intelligence group.

Spirited wiretap debate of '76

Thirty years ago, President Gerald Ford overrode objections of top officials in his administration, including then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and CIA Director George H.W. Bush, to support legislation creating a judicial process for foreign-intelligence wiretapping in this country, newly released documents show.

Plotter seeks spy ruling on his case

The Ohio trucker who pleaded guilty to an al-Qaida plan to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge with gas torches three years ago is now seeking to vacate his conviction, in part based on the reported use of National Security Agency warrantless wiretaps on him.

In defense of U.S. wiretaps

President George W. Bush offered a feisty defense of warrantless wiretapping yesterday, and it was the unabashed stance of a man seemingly confident the law - and the politics - are on his side.

Clinton engages in war of words over wiretaps

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday took aim at President George W. Bush's secret domestic spying program, dismissing White House explanations for the warrantless wiretapping as "strange" and "far-fetched."

In defense of taps

A top intelligence official yesterday insisted that a controversial National Security Agency surveillance program is meant to target those believed to be part of al-Qaida or its affiliates, not to cast a wide "drift net" to capture American phone calls and e-mails indiscriminately.

Eavesdropping tests legal lines

As a Carter administration lawyer in the late 1970s, Kenneth Bass found himself in the middle of negotiations between Congress and the White House over passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the law governing national security wiretaps that has been at the center of the past week's firestorm over President George W. Bush's program of warrantless eavesdropping on Americans.

Animated Cartoon: N.S.A. Wiretapping