FISA Amendments Act on warrantless wiretapping renewed

12/28/12:  Wired's Threat Level reports the Senate on Friday reauthorized for five years broad electronic eavesdropping powers that legalized and expanded the President George W. Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program.  The FISA Amendments Act which was expiring Friday at midnight, allows the government to electronically eavesdrop on Americans’ phone calls and e-mails without a probable-cause warrant so long as one of the parties to the communication is believed outside the United States. The communications may be intercepted “to acquire foreign intelligence information.”  In the end, the identical package the House passed 301-118 swept through the Senate on a 73-23 vote.