[Osx-nutters] allow -- but not require

[Kevin Callahan]

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/12/ 
AR2006091201252.html>


bill negotiated with the White House to allow -- but not require --  
Bush to submit the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping  
program to a secret court for constitutional review.
That bill, which could come before the Senate next week, is  
considered by many to be a ratification of the administration's  
current surveillance program, which monitors the overseas phone calls  
and e-mails of some Americans when one party is suspected of links to  
terrorism. The program has been attacked by Democrats and civil  
liberties advocates as an excessive encroachment on Americans' privacy.

"The committee took the important step of acknowledging the  
president's constitutional authority to conduct foreign intelligence  
surveillance," said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), an ardent Bush ally.

At the same time, the House Armed Services Committee voted 52 to 8 to  
ratify the White House's version of legislation creating military  
commissions for trying terrorism suspects. The measure would give  
Bush the authority he seeks to withhold classified evidence from  
defendants, admit testimony that defendants might maintain was  
coerced, and protect U.S. intelligence agents from legal action over  
their interrogation methods.