Net spying gets OK from secret U.S. court, Melissa Milios, OnlineJournalism.com Managing Editor: "A special three-judge panel Monday overturned a lower court's decision that said some sections of the USA Patriot Act step on the civil liberties of Americans. U.S. police now have the authority to 'monitor Internet usage, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects,' CNET News.com reports. The ruling loosens procedures federal agents have to follow when spying under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) and allows intelligence sharing between federal agents and domestic police. Attorney General John Ashcroft and the Justice Department declared the ruling a victory in the war against terrorism, but many civil libertarian groups are concerned. Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, told CNET News: 'Because the FISA now applies to ordinary criminal matters if they are dressed up as national security inquiries, the new rules could open the door to circumvention of the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements. The result: rubber-stamp judicial consent to phone and Internet surveillance, even in regular criminal cases, and FBI access to medical, educational and other business records that conceivably relate to foreign intelligence probes."