In Washington, former Senate Minority leader Tom Daschle has disclosed previously unknown details that challenge the Bush administration’s claim it has legal authority to eavesdrop on Americans and foreign nationals in the US. The White House says the authority was implicitly granted in the joint Congressional resolution authorizing the use of force passed shortly after 9/11. But in today’s Washington Post, Daschle claims the Bush administration requested, but was denied, the authority it now claims it was granted.

• Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle: “Literally minutes before the Senate cast its vote, the administration sought to add the words 'in the United States and' after 'appropriate force' in the agreed-upon text. This last-minute change would have given the president broad authority to exercise expansive powers not just overseas — where we all understood he wanted authority to act — but right here in the United States, potentially against American citizens. I could see no justification for Congress to accede to this extraordinary request for additional authority. I refused.”