The Bush administration has refused to release any part of the order issued yesterday by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court authorizing NSA surveillance within the United States, saying doing so would risk exposing operational details.
It’s not a consensus opinion: The presiding judge of the court says that if it were up to her, she saw no problem with sharing the order with Congress. But since the order contains “classified information,” she says that it’s up to the Attorney General to give the green light.
The letter was in response to a letter Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA) sent yesterday asking for copies of the order.
The AP has more.
