In what I interpret to be little more than an anti-impeachment initiative, the administration appears to have partially backed down on the NSA wiretapping dispute by announcing the restoration of FISA court oversight.
Update [2007-1-17 17:20:59 by BooMan]: From Senator Feingold’s office.
“For more than five years, the President has conducted an illegal program, including more than a year during which he publicly asserted that this violation of the law was absolutely essential to protecting the public from terrorists. I am pleased that the President has been forced to return to the law and that this program has been terminated. I continue to have many questions about what the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has decided and intend to scrutinize carefully how the Court has interpreted the FISA statute. In addition, while I welcome the decision to stop conducting surveillance without judicial approval, the President now needs to respond fully to legitimate congressional questions about the complete history of this now-terminated illegal program.”
