US Senate Panel Clears Terror Surveillance Legislation

  Sept. 13, 2006 (Bloomberg) -- A Senate panel approved legislation on a party-line vote authorizing President George W. Bush's domestic eavesdropping program with court review.

  The measure, approved by a 10-8 vote in the Republican- controlled Senate Judiciary Committee, now goes to the full Senate, where Republican leaders plan to seek a vote before lawmakers leave next month to campaign for November's election.

  The measure would authorize a secret court to rule on the legality of the National Security Agency's program to listen to the international calls between al-Qaeda operatives overseas and their suspected confederates in the U.S. without court warrants.

  ``No one who has asked for the National Security Agency to stop the surveillance of the international terrorists,'' said Texas Senator John Cornyn, one of 10 Republicans who supported the legislation.

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