Domestic spying gives Congress hollow victory

San Jose Mercury News: The American people deserve to know at least two things about the warrantless spying program authorized by President Bush: Is the program illegal? A majority of legal experts believe it is. And why did the administration authorize it?
To date, it has provided no evidence that any information it got under the program could not have been obtained by following the law.
The deal struck last week between the White House and Republicans on the Senate intelligence committee ensures that the Senate won't be seeking those answers. Instead, it's an agreement to lower legal standards to bestow a veneer of legality on the president's secret spying operation.
The agreement would put the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping program under minuscule congressional oversight. Under the deal, only seven of the intelligence committee's 15 members will receive any information about the spying program.
Republicans are trying to spin this as a victory for Congress. Yet the full intelligence committee is already entitled to oversee the president's intelligence operations and really should do so.
White House stonewalling
What's more, the agreement amounts to Congress giving its blessing to a program whose scope and operational details remain unknown because of stonewalling by the White House. So by giving in, Congress is abdicating its watchdog role and condoning a program that may well violate specific laws and the Constitution.
No one is against spying on terrorists. But if the president's program is only about monitoring the communications of terrorists, it could be conducted legally, under the oversight of a secret court. The fact that Bush refuses to submit the program to court review suggests it goes beyond what's legal.
If this is all the oversight Congress can muster, Americans hungry for answers have two options.
They can wait for lawsuits challenging the NSA program to wind their way through the courts -- a process that can take years. Or, in November, they can vote in a new Congress that will fulfill its constitutionally mandated role.