Cancelled TIA project is on-going.

[turbo]

What is the 72 hours figure you're citing? Is that the normal span of time between search and notification in a delayed-notice search warrant? Or is there actually some provision already in place whereby a law enforcement or intelligence official can carry out a wiretap without a warrant for 72 hours?

Under the provisions of FISA, the government can use all the intelligence methods at its disposal to spy on you, and can do so for 72 hours before notifying the FISA court, which approves about 99% of all requests, from what I can determine. The standard is set very low - the AG's office only needs to state that they suspect you of being an agent of a foreign entity. The reason that the Bushies want to side-step even this modest requirement is that they want to cast a much wider net, and they cannot do this under the oversight of the FISA court, since it would be pretty hard to prove that hundreds of millions of US citizens are agents of foreign powers.