Back in February, the Senate intel committee held a nomination hearing for both Dawn Johnson, Obama's pick for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Council, and David Kris, now the Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division.

When questioning Kris, Senator Feingold asked about the shortcomings of last year's FISA Amendments Act:

SEN. FEINGOLD: We had an opportunity -- and you can respond in a minute -- but we had an opportunity earlier today to discuss in a classified setting specific concerns I have about how the FISA amendment act has been implemented. Without discussing those specifics in an open hearing, do you agree that there are serious problems that need to be corrected?

MR. KRIS: Senator, I do, I appreciate very much the meeting we had this morning, you raised a number of concerns that I as an outsider had not appreciated and you certainly got my attention. I have been thinking about it since we met and if it's even possible you increased my desire to, if I were to be confirmed, to get to the bottom of the FISA amendments act and I hope if I am confirmed that I can take advantage of your learning of others on the committee and the intelligence committee to see how best to make any necessary improvements.

Kris is the right guy to look into this: after leaving the Bush Justice Department, he wrote a 23-page memo debunking much of the legal argument the previous administration used to justify warrantless surveillance under the al-Qaeda use-of-force authorization.

After today's revelations, seems like no better time to take AAG Kris up on his pledge to re-examine the implementation of the FISA Amendments Act.