NSA Surveillance Back in Congressional Crosshairs

Senate Intelligence Committee leaders plan to advance legislation behind closed doors Oct 29 -- ironically aimed at lifting the cloak-and-dagger opacity of the National Security Agency's controversial domestic-surveillance methods.

By tightening or codifying current practices and adding transparency and accountability measures, the legislation from Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Vice Chairman Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), is a response to critics who have questioned the NSA's rationale for secretly collecting phone and Internet records of millions of Americans. The bill they plan to move through the committee protects the NSA's power to conduct sweeping surveillance approved by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and is unlikely to go anywhere near appeasing reform advocates.