White House Told NSA Briefings Broke
Law
Yahaoo News/AP
By KATHERINE SHRADER, Associated Press Writer
January 4, 2006
WASHINGTON - The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee told
President Bush Wednesday that the White House broke the law by withholding
information from the full congressional oversight committees about a new
domestic surveillance program.
In a letter to Bush, Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.,
said the National Security Act requires the heads of the various intelligence
agencies to keep the entire House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and
currently informed of the intelligence activities of the United States."
Only in the case of a highly classified covert action can the president
choose to inform a narrower group of Congress members about his decision,
Harman said. That action is defined in the law as an operation to influence
political, economic or military conditions of another country.
"The NSA program does not qualify as a 'covert action,'" Harman wrote.
Bush and his senior national security aides have said that appropriate
members of Congress were briefed more than a dozen times about the National
Security Agency's domestic surveillance operations, which Bush first approved
the month after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
The highly classified sessions are known to include the "Gang of Eight,"
which is made up of the top Republican and Democrat in the House and Senate and
on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees.
"We believe that Congress was briefed appropriately," White House
spokeswoman Dana Perino said Wednesday in response to Harman's letter.
Responding in writing to Harman, House Intelligence Chairman Peter Hoekstra,
R-Mich., said Harman had never previously raised concerns about the number of
people briefed on the program.
"In the past, you have been fully supportive of this program and the
practice by which we have overseen it," he wrote. "I find your position now
completely incongruent."
Many details about the scope of electronic surveillance program remain
unknown. However, Bush and his aides have asserted the monitoring —
without court warrants — is narrowly targeted to eavesdrop on calls and
e-mails of people who are inside the United States and suspected of
communicating with al-Qaida or its affiliates.
Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the program helped to prevent
possible terrorist attacks against the American people: "This program is
critical to the national security of United States."
Democrats who have been briefed on the program have raised serious concerns
about its legality, but not called for its immediate halt. Republicans and
Democrats alike have called for hearings this year.
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