Seems the Bush Administration blinked on the legal NSA survelliace program:

“WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department, easing a Bush administration policy, said Wednesday it has decided to give an independent body authority to monitor the government’s controversial domestic surveillance program.

In a letter to the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this authority has been given to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and that it already has approved one request for monitoring the communications of a person believed to be linked to al-Qaida or an associated terror group.

The court orders approving collection of international communications — whether it originates in the United States or abroad — was issued Jan. 10, according to the two-page letter to Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

”As a result of these orders, any electronic surveillance that was occurring as part of the Terrorist Surveillance Program will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court,” Gonzales wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.

”Accordingly, under these circumstances, the President has determined not to reauthorize the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorization expires,” the attorney general wrote.”

Ugh……Seems as a result of this internal investigation.

So what does this mean? I have to see the letter in it’s entirety first before I judge it further, but on the surface it looks like much ado about nothing. First, the FISA court never did give up authority, however it was determined that in some cases more direct methods were needed and right.

Professor Levin at National Review is not happy:

“Is there no principle subject to negotiation? Is there no course subject to reversal? For the Bush administration to argue for years that this program, as operated, was critical to our national security and fell within the president’s Constitutional authority, to then turnaround and surrender presidential authority this way is disgraceful. The administration is repudiating all the arguments it has made in testimony, legal briefs, and public statements. This goes to the heart of the White House’s credibility. How can it cast away such a fundamental position of principle and law like this?”

Again, we don’t know all of what the letter said, and we’ll have to see what the White House says in response to the news reports.

UPDATE: Having read the letter, this IS much to do about nothing and in fact the President is more impowered by the move. AJ Strata makes the point clearer, also Stop the ACLU with more reacts.