The U.S. Department of Justice has begun an investigation into how its lawyers handled requests for the authority to wiretap Americans without a warrant under a domestic spying campaign prosecuted by the Bush administration. The investigation, which was announced today in a letter from DOJ legal counsel Marshall Jarrett to Representative Maurice Hinchey (Democrat from New York), reflects a growing outrage among members of Congress for a formal probe of the program. The program allowed the National Security Agency (NSA) to spy on Americans' emails and phone calls in order to uncover terrorism tied within the United States. Jarrett wrote in the letter that the investigation would focus on "the Department of Justice's role in authorizing, approving, and auditing" the NSA's surveillance activities "and whether such activities are permissible under existing law." The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), enacted in 1978, allows the government to spy on international phone calls for 72 hours as it seeks a warrant for continued surveillance. But the Justice Department after the September 11, 2001 attacks enacted a new law, by which the President of the United States can exercise executive power in order to obtain permission to monitor international communication. The measure allowed the president to "use all necessary and appropriate force" on suspected terrorists. --more 13 02 Local Time 10 02 GMT
