Editorial: Timing raises questions

Sunday, Jan. 21, 2007 | 7:21 a.m.

One day before the Senate Judiciary Committee was to begin hearings on President Bush's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Bush administration officials announced that such surveillance would now be subject to judicial review.

The decision was a reversal for Bush, who has stubbornly insisted that forcing the National Security Agency to adhere to a 1970s-era law - which requires the agency to seek warrants in a secret court before monitoring Americans' communications - hindered the government's ability to track terrorist activity. Bush started domestic surveillance without warrants after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The New York Times revealed the program's existence in 2005. Bush has since been admonished by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers and federal appeals courts for what amounts to spying on Americans without any judicial oversight.

The timing of this apparent reversal in policy doesn't help to quell suspicions, as Bush often makes grand public promises to deflect criticism. And it is unclear how much the process will change. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, citing security concerns, refused to tell the Judiciary Committee whether eavesdropping requests will be reviewed one at a time or in groups.

The Bush administration's history of secrecy and deceit by omission runs deep, and it is hard to believe that this seeming change of heart is anything more than an attempt to avoid scrutiny by a Congress that is now run by Democrats.