“[T]he Bush administration largely got its way on July 9 [2008] when the Senate went along with the House and passed the FISA Amendments Act. The new law provides what amounts to legal immunity to the telecoms [for allowing intelligence agencies to eavesdrop on communications], weakens the authority of the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court, and gives freer range to NSA [National Security Agency] in targeting suspected terrorists abroad. …Although the NSA will still have to obtain a FISA order to target Americans, they can now target foreigners outside the country simply by submitting to the court a list of suspected terrorist groups rather than individual names. …But in a significant concession, Americans abroad now come under the protection of the FISA court for the first time. Previously, all that was needed to eavesdrop on Americans outside the country was the permission of the attorney general; now to listen in on Americans overseas the NSA will have to obtain a FISA order.”
– James Bamford, The Shadow Factory, Page 307