THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

You will now get a chance to see the primary secret order that "allows" the NSA to rummage through all your communications, except posted mail.

The Obama administration plans to release previously secret court orders that set out the rules and rationale for the bulk collection of U.S. phone records as officials seek to quell growing unrest in Congress over the government's massive information dragnet.

According to a senior U.S. official, the government has declassified the order by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that authorized the collection program, which began in 2007. Before that, the National Security Agency had been collecting telephone records without a court order since shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The now declassified order is expected to be made public Wednesday when Deputy Attorney General James Cole, NSA Deputy Director John Inglis and other officials are slated to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden disclosed the program in June by giving the Guardian newspaper and The Washington Post a secondary order from the foreign intelligence court directed at one company, Verizon. The primary order has more details, the official said, including the rules about when the database of phone records may be queried.

Since Snowden's disclosures, administration officials have been engaged in intense internal debates over how much information about the program and the secret orders of the foreign intelligence court should be released to the public. National security officials have resisted many proposals to declassify information on the program, arguing that virtually any information about it could potentially be used by terrorist groups to evade U.S. surveillance. Other administration officials have argued that Congress could kill the entire program if the administration fails to reassure the public about how the information is gathered and what protections are in place for privacy.

In addition to the court order from 2007, administration officials are also planning to release two white papers on the telephone-data program that were provided to Congress in 2009 and 2011 before the House and Senate voted to reauthorize the law behind it, the senior official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted.

All this is being done to reassure you that the government has your best interests at heart and you don't have to worry your pretty little head about what they are doing. Just watch out for the flying pigs.