The Justice Department does not approve emergency authorizations without knowing it will receive court approval within 72 hours. To initiate surveillance under a FISA emergency authorization, it is not enough to rely on the best judgment of our intelligence officers alone. Those intelligence officers would have to get the sign-off of lawyers at the NSA that all provisions of FISA have been satisfied, then lawyers in the Department of Justice would have to be similarly satisfied, and finally, the Attorney General would have to be satisfied that the search meets the requirements of FISA. The government would have to be prepared to follow up with a full FISA application within 72 hours.

Most of the supporting arguments ring hollow to me because they assume facts not in evidence so to speak.....they require us to take the President at his word when it comes to surveillance of Americans under the program. Examples:

The program only applies to communications where one party is located outside of the United States.

The NSA terrorist surveillance program described by the President is only focused on members of Al Qaeda and affiliated groups. Communications are only intercepted if there is a reasonable basis to believe that one party to the communication is a member of al Qaeda, affiliated with al Qaeda, or a member of an organization affiliated with al Qaeda.

...The NSA activities described by the President are narrow in scope and aim.

...The NSA program is an "early warning system" with only one purpose: to detect and prevent the next attack on the United States from foreign agents hiding in our midst. It is a program with a military nature that requires speed and agility.

Let the hearings begin.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]