Republican Who Oversees N.S.A. Calls for
Wiretap Inquiry
NY Times
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: February 8, 2006
WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 — A House Republican whose subcommittee oversees
the National Security Agency broke ranks with the White House on Tuesday and
called for a full Congressional inquiry into the Bush administration's domestic
eavesdropping program./P>
The lawmaker, Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of
the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence,
said in an interview that she had "serious concerns" about the surveillance
program. By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers,
she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the
agency is monitoring and why.
Ms. Wilson, who was a National Security Council aide in the administration
of President Bush's father, is the first Republican on either the House's
Intelligence Committee or the Senate's to call for a full Congressional
investigation into the program, in which the N.S.A. has been eavesdropping
without warrants on the international communications of people inside the
United States believed to have links with terrorists.
The congresswoman's discomfort with the operation appears to reflect
deepening fissures among Republicans over the program's legal basis and
political liabilities. Many Republicans have strongly backed President Bush's
power to use every tool at his disposal to fight terrorism, but 4 of the 10
Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced concerns about the program
at a hearing where Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified on
Monday.
A growing number of Republicans have called in recent days for Congress to
consider amending federal wiretap law to address the constitutional issues
raised by the N.S.A. operation.
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, for one, said he considered some
of the administration's legal justifications for the program "dangerous" in
their implications, and he told Mr. Gonzales that he wanted to work on new
legislation that would help those tracking terrorism "know what they can and
can't do."
But the administration has said repeatedly since the program was disclosed
in December that it considers further legislation unnecessary, believing that
the president already has the legal authority to authorize the operation.
Vice President Dick Cheney reasserted that position Tuesday in an interview
on "The NewsHour With Jim Lehrer."
Members of Congress "have the right and the responsibility to suggest
whatever they want to suggest" about changing wiretap law, Mr. Cheney said. But
"we have all the legal authority we need" already, he said, and a public debate
over changes in the law could alert Al Qaeda to tactics used by American
intelligence officials.
"It's important for us, if we're going to proceed legislatively, to keep in
mind there's a price to be paid for that, and it might well in fact do
irreparable damage to our capacity to collect information," Mr. Cheney
said.
The administration, backed by Republican leaders in both houses, has also
resisted calls for inquiries by either Congress or an independent
investigator.
As for the politics, some Republicans say they are concerned that prolonged
public scrutiny of the surveillance program could prove a distraction in this
year's midterm Congressional elections, and the administration has worked to
contain any damage by aggressively defending the legality of the operation. It
has also limited its Congressional briefings on the program's operational
details to the so-called Gang of Eight — each party's leaders in the
Senate and the House and on the two intelligence committees — and has
agreed to full committee briefings only on the legal justifications for the
operation, without discussing in detail how the N.S.A. conducts it.
Ms. Wilson said in the interview Tuesday that she considered the limited
Congressional briefings to be "increasingly untenable" because they left most
lawmakers knowing little about the program. She said the House Intelligence
Committee needed to conduct a "painstaking" review, including not only
classified briefings but also access to internal documents and staff interviews
with N.S.A. aides and intelligence officials.
Ms. Wilson, a former Air Force officer who is the only female veteran
currently in Congress, has butted up against the administration previously over
controversial policy issues, including Medicare and troop strength in Iraq. She
said she realized that publicizing her concerns over the surveillance program
could harm her relations with the administration. "The president has his duty
to do, but I have mine too, and I feel strongly about that," she said.
Asked whether the White House was concerned about support for the program
among Republicans, Dana Perino, a presidential spokeswoman, said: "The
terrorist surveillance program is critical to the safety and protection of all
Americans, and we will continue to work with Congress. The attorney general
testified at length yesterday, and he will return to Capitol Hill twice more
before the week ends."
Aides to Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, who as chairman of the
full House Intelligence Committee is one of the eight lawmakers briefed on the
operations of the program, said he could not be reached for comment on whether
he would be open to a full inquiry.
Mr. Hoekstra has been a strong defender of the program and has expressed no
intention thus far to initiate a full review. In two recent letters to the
Congressional Research Service, he criticized reports by the agency that raised
questions about the legal foundations of the N.S.A. program and the limited
briefings given to Congress. He said in one letter that it was "unwise at best
and reckless at worst" for the agency to prepare a report on classified matters
that it knew little about.
But two leading Democratic members of the intelligence committees,
Representative Jane Harman and Senator Dianne Feinstein, both of California,
wrote a letter of their own Tuesday defending the nonpartisan research
service's reports on the surveillance program and other issues, saying its work
had been "very helpful" in view of what they deemed the minimal information
provided by the administration.
Scott Shane contributed reporting for this article.
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