GOP, White House Reach Agreement on Intercepts

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, March 7 — Moving to tamp down Democratic calls for an investigation of the administration's domestic eavesdropping program, Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Tuesday that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.

This is the Times supposedly in "news" mode, but you'll notice that they refer to "domestic eavesdropping", even though that's not really the truth - all of these calls and emails have either a destination or an origin outside of the United States. The Gray Lady also insists on calling the intercepts "wiretapping", which is the equivalent of calling a Ferrari Testarossa a "horseless carriage".

Here's the reason this accord is big news [emphasis added]:

The agreement, hashed out in weeks of negotiations between Vice President Dick Cheney and Republicans critical of the program, dashes Democratic hopes of starting a full committee investigation because the proposal won the support of Senators Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Olympia J. Snowe of Maine. The two, both Republicans, had threatened to support a fuller inquiry if the White House did not disclose more about the program to Congress.

Of course there will be a thorough investigation into just who betrayed his or her country by leaking details of the intercept program to the New York Times.

Also posted at The Jawa Report.