by TChris

Federal authorities visited the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court 1,727 times during 2003 to ask for secret warrants in terrorism or espionage investigations. All but three requests were at least partially approved; two of those three were approved after the requests were modified.

The warrants authorize electronic interception of communications as well as physical searches. Requests for secret warrants have doubled since 2001, an increase that some find troubling.

Civil liberties advocates maintain that the sharp rise in the government's use of the secret warrants, made easier by the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act, represents a worrisome trend because the authorities are held to a lower standard of proof in spying on suspects than they are in seeking traditional criminal warrants.

The increased requests are reportedly "overwhelming the ability of the system to process them and to conduct the surveillance."