WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal applications for a special U.S. court to authorize secret surveillance rose sharply after the September 11, 2001, attacks, and the panel required changes to the requests at a even greater rate, government documents show.

President George W. Bush acknowledged this month that he had secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on the international phone conversations and e-mail of Americans suspected of links to terrorists without approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The domestic-spying order has set off a furious debate over whether the war on terrorism gives Bush a blank check when it comes to civil liberties and whether the president, in fact, broke the law.

The Justice Department's reports to the U.S. Congress on the surveillance court's activities show that the Bush administration made 5,645 applications for electronic surveillance and physical searches through 2004, the most recent year for which figures are available. In the previous four years, the court received a total of 3,436.

The 11-judge panel modified 179 of the Bush administration's requests. By contrast, only one was modified in the preceding four years. The court has reportedly handled almost 20,000 applications since it was set up, and has rejected only a handful.

Reasons for the modifications were not stated and could range from minor alterations to more substantive changes.

The highly classified court was set up by the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in the wake of Cold War spy fears and President Richard Nixon's misuse of U.S. intelligence agencies to spy on the anti-Vietnam war movement and other political dissidents.

Bush has said FISA was intended for "long-term monitoring" and that after September 11 the government needed to move "faster and quicker" to protect and defend Americans.

Bush said he had reauthorized the domestic spying program more than 30 times since the September 11 attacks and would continue to do so.

In Crawford, Texas, where Bush is spending the holidays, his spokesman Trent Duffy defended what he called a "limited program."

"This is not about monitoring phone calls designed to arrange Little League practice or what to bring to a potluck dinner," he told reporters. "These are designed to monitor calls from very bad people to very bad people who have a history of blowing up commuter trains, weddings, and churches."

After some of the FISA judges expressed concern about the legality of the domestic spying program, the Bush administration agreed to provide them with a classified briefing, probably early next month.

U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales earlier this month called FISA "a very important tool." He said the administration would continue to go to the court and obtain orders under the act, but sometimes eavesdroppers needed to act faster.

© Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.

Commentary:
It's worth noting that 2004 was an election year. Who was the government watching and why?