Bush to let more senators see surveillance memos

WASHINGTON - President Bush will let some Senate Judiciary Committee members see legal memos about his terrorist surveillance program before the panel votes to shield telephone companies that cooperated with the government from privacy suits.

The White House will allow Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat and chairman of the committee, and ranking Republican Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to read the government's justifications for the interception, without court warrants, of suspected terrorists' telephone calls and e-mails, Leahy said.

The panel will soon consider legislation, already approved by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to immunize AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc., and other carriers from lawsuits accusing them of illegally sharing customer calling data with the government. The measure also would require more court supervision of interceptions by the National Security Agency.

Providing retroactive immunity to the telephone companies without knowing details of the program "scares the heck out of me, just the thought of it," Leahy said at a committee meeting in Washington. The documents might help lawmakers "at least know what we are doing," he said.

More than 40 lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages have been filed in San Francisco federal court against AT&T, Verizon, Sprint Nextel Corp., and other carriers. The suits say companies that cooperated with the surveillance broke privacy laws by giving the government customer data.

Bush spokesman Tony Fratto said White House Counsel Fred Fielding offered Leahy and Specter a chance to "review material that would be helpful in legislating on the issue of extending liability protection."

Another Judiciary Committee member, Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, the number two Senate Democrat, said he won't vote on the measure without first seeing the legal memos. Intelligence Committee members were allowed to see the memos before their vote.

Later yesterday, the White House said the offer to Leahy and Specter extends to the other senators and staff they designate. Fratto said any such lawmakers and staff would be given a classified briefing first.

Leahy told reporters he expected to see the documents as early as Monday.

The material includes written communications to phone companies that assisted the spy agency with interceptions Bush ordered after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Bush has demanded the retroactive immunity for phone companies as part of legislation that would give a secret intelligence court more supervision over the collection of calls and e-mails by foreign-based terrorists into the United States.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.