Information contained in the surveillance requests largely is classified at the secret or top-secret levels, the official said. Surveillance requests often come from the foreign intelligence groups in each of the bureau’s 56 field offices.[...]
The Justice Department prepares the final version of each surveillance request after it has been repeatedly vetted. Only a handful of federal officials are authorized to provide the final approval. They include the FBI director, the deputy director of national intelligence, the secretary of state and the national security adviser.
The application, known as the FISA System, allows users to access information it holds based on the security clearances they hold, the official said. "The technicians don’t need to see the secret and top-secret levels," he said.
Automating the system speeded the approval process from 120 days to 60 days, the official said. It also provides an audit trail of system activity, generates reminders about pending requests and has room to grow, the official said.
The feds now have a custom application for handling the ultra-secret requests for spy and terrorism wiretaps, replacing the cumbersome process of hand-delivery the DOJ had been relying on to get approval for the wiretaps from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to Government Computer News. The FBI submitted 2074 applications to the court in 2005. All but one was approved.
