"For many citizens, the notion of an American 'secret court' would appear a striking contradiction in terms," writes law professor Jonathan Turley. "Until last week's disclosures by Congress, few Americans were aware that our government routinely used such a court to conduct searches of its own citizens for the purpose of foreign intelligence gathering, searches that would be denied as unconstitutional by any conventional court." Under the little-known Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the secret court has operated for more than two decades, approving more than 10,000 covert seaches (and has never turned down a single request!). We're hearing about it now because the secret court itself is blowing the whistle over the Ashcroft Justice Department's Kafkaesque power grab [3] which threatens to eliminate the distinction between spying on foreign enemies and spying on U.S. citizens.