OSAMA AIN'T A CITIZEN:

Legal Test Was Seen as Hurdle to Spying: Some say the court's tougher standard of 'probable cause' led to the surveillance order. (Richard B. Schmitt and David G. Savage, December 20, 2005, LA Times)

The 1978 law creating the secret tribunal, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, authorizes intelligence gathering in cases in which the government can establish "probable cause" that the target is working for a "foreign power" or is involved in terrorism.

In briefing reporters Monday, Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said that President Bush's 2002 order allowed for surveillance in cases in which officials had "a reasonable basis" to conclude that one of the parties to the communication had terrorist links. Those judgments were made not by a court, as the law provides, but by shift supervisors at the National Security Agency.

Some experts said that easier-to-satisfy "reasonable basis" standard probably was a key reason for the administration's decision. "It is certainly different than probable cause," said Michael J. Woods, a Washington lawyer and former head of the national security law unit at the FBI. "That, in my mind, is a much more likely reason why they maintained this" surveillance program.

So long as it involves foreigners, a sneaking suspicion will satisfy most Americans.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 20, 2005 8:28 AM