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Measure Would Make Administration Seek FISA Court's Permission to Eavesdrop
By Charles Babington - Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 26, 2006; Page A11
... The draft version of Specter's bill, which is circulating in intelligence and legal circles, would require the attorney general to seek the FISA court's approval for each planned NSA intercept under the program. Bush has said the agency monitors phone calls and e-mails between people in the United States and people abroad when any of them is thought to have possible terrorist ties.
Specter's bill would require the attorney general to give the secret court "a statement of the facts and circumstances" causing the Justice Department to believe "that at least one of the participants in the communications to be intercepted . . . will be the foreign power or agent of a foreign power specified in [the law], or a person who has had communication with the foreign power or agent." The attorney general would have to provide "a detailed description of the nature of the information sought" and "an estimate of the number of communications to be intercepted . . . during the requested authorization period."
The draft says the surveillance program's goal is "to gather foreign intelligence information or to protect against international terrorism."
Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, a civil rights group, said the bill's language is alarmingly broad. "It's not limited to al-Qaeda or even terrorism," she said. Those who communicate with "foreign powers" could include a vast array of innocent people, Martin said.
Specter Proposes NSA Surveillance Rules

This is at odds with the details in http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1586043/posts

See also http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1593037/posts, "Specter may block funds for wiretaps." That one is, I think, making a mountian out of nothing. Specter often makes academically accurate statements that describe the extent of power of the various branches. I've yet to see him seriously advocate a postion at the extreme limit of any branch's power.