White House discloses new details on eavesdropping

Reuters | February 9 2006
By David Morgan

The White House, under mounting political pressure in Congress, provided the full House of Representatives intelligence committee on Wednesday with new details about its domestic spying program and pledged to do the same in the Senate.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and deputy U.S. intelligence chief, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, briefed the House panel for the first time on operational details of the National Security Agency program that has raised an outcry among Democrats and Republicans, lawmakers said.

A White House spokeswoman said the same officials would also provide details to the Senate intelligence committee on Thursday.

Lawmakers said they hoped the three-hour, closed-door House briefing would lead to increased congressional oversight of the NSA program, which allows the agency to monitor international telephone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens without first obtaining warrants while in pursuit of al Qaeda operatives.

Up to now, the White House has been willing to discuss the program only with eight senior lawmakers known as the "Gang of Eight," an approach that has drawn increasing criticism from Democrats and Republicans in recent days.

But White House spokeswoman Dana Perino described the new material as "procedural information" and rejected suggestions that the White House was changing tactics.

"We gave committee members some additional information without violating the principle that we had set forth, which is to limit a briefing on the full program," Perino said.

FIRST STEP

House intelligence committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, described the briefing as a positive first step and said the classified discussion had avoided only certain technical issues.

"While the briefing did not, and could not, cover the full operational aspects of the program, it will allow for increased committee oversight going forward," Hoekstra said.

The panel's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record) of California, also sounded a positive note. "The ice is thawing," she told reporters. "The administration sees that it's better to work with Congress on this issue."

But in the Senate, Democrats and Republicans continued to question Bush's legal authority and called for a full inquiry.

Sen. John Rockefeller (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, wrote to Bush on Wednesday asking that Gonzales and Hayden be allowed to brief the Senate panel on the full facts about the program.

"Sen. Rockefeller has not received a response from the White House, and will continue to press for the full committee to have access to all operational and legal details of the program," said Rockefeller's spokeswoman, Wendy Morigi.

The administration claims the program is authorized by Bush's Constitutional powers as commander-in-chief and by a congressional authorization for the use of military force passed in the days following the September 11 attacks.

But critics say the program violates both the Constitution and the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which requires warrants for all electronic eavesdropping.

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record), the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, announced on the floor of the Senate on Wednesday that he was drafting legislation to require the White House to submit the program for a legal review by the secret federal court that grants surveillance warrants under FISA.

Last modified February 9, 2006