Informed Speculation

There are big goings-on right now regarding the disputed surveillance program initiated under President Bush’s authorization:

Senate Intelligence Chairman Pat Roberts said Thursday he has worked out an agreement with the White House to change U.S. law regarding the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program and provide more information about it to Congress.

“We are trying to get some movement, and we have a clear indication of that movement,” Roberts, R-Kan., said.

Without offering specifics, Roberts said the agreement with the White House provides “a fix” to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and offers more briefings to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The deal comes as the committee was set to meet about whether to open an investigation into the hotly disputed program. Roberts indicated the deal may eliminate the need for such an inquiry. Democrats have been demanding an investigation but some Republicans don’t want to tangle the panel in a testy election-year probe.

“Whether or not an investigation is the right thing to do at this particular time, I am not sure,” Roberts told reporters while heading into the meeting.

Could it be that easy? Color me skeptical…but if true, it will seriously rain on Glenn Greenwald’s parade, although he and other critics can take comfort in the decision today to force the Justice Department to release documents on the surveillance program, or else provide a list of what it is withholding…

More on this one as events warrant…

UPDATE 7:29 p.m.: As I promised, here’s more:

The Senate Intelligence Committee decided today not to investigate President Bush’s domestic surveillance program, at least for the time being.

“I believe that such an investigation is currently unwarranted and would be detrimental to this highly classified program,” Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas and chairman of the panel, said this afternoon following a closed session.

While Mr. Roberts’s announcement signaled that the administration’s eavesdropping program would not be subject to Senate scrutiny, at least for the time being, there was no guarantee that the House would not go ahead with an inquiry of its own.

Mr. Roberts said “an agreement in principle” had been reached with the administration whereby lawmakers would be given more information on the surveillance operation run by the National Security Agency.

“The details of this agreement will take some time to work out,” Mr. Roberts said.But the committee’s ranking Democrat, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, was clearly unhappy after the meeting and said it made no sense to pursue legislation when the full details of the surveillance program were not known. Mr. Roberts said Mr. Rockefeller’s proposal for an investigation would be reconsidered when the committee reconvenes on March 7.

“If by that time we have reached no detailed accommodation with the administration concerning the committee’s oversight role, it is possible that the committee may vote to conduct an inquiry into the program,” Mr. Roberts said. He added, “The administration has come a long way in the last month. I am optimistic that we will have an agreement before the committee meets again.”