President Bush has agreed conditionally to a court review of his antiterror eavesdropping operations under a deal that, for the first time, would open an important part of his once-secret surveillance to a constitutional test.The disclosure of the agreement on Thursday came as the White House sought to end an impasse over a six-month-old dispute with Congress on the National Security Agency's program. It monitors the international calls and e-mails of Americans when terrorism is suspected.
Under a deal with the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, Bush has agreed to support a bill that could submit the program to the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a constitutional review. ``You have here a recognition by the president that he does not have a blank check,'' said Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. As a leading critic of the program, he had broken ranks with his party.