Last night the House of Representatives approved a temporary amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that passed the Senate on Friday night. President Bush will sign it shortly. The language is here. On the merits, I think this legislation on the whole seems relatively well done.

I really don't agree with this perspective, but there are links from here to lots of others. The idea that the executive has hereby been authorized to monitor ALL international calls to and from the US is a dramatic policy shift. However, there is something unsettling about both the timing of this and its duration. I think pundits may be underestimating the seriousness of statements made by numerous individuals that a terrorist attack is more likely in the coming months. This may, in fact, be a temporary patch done to deal with a specific threat which may be reconsidered later. For the time being, however, anything you say on an international call can and will be used against you in a court of law.