White House agrees to give eavesdropping information

WASHINGTON – The White House reversed course Wednesday and agreed to provide the House Intelligence Committee with some information about its secret program to intercept U.S.-foreign communications without court approval.

The decision came as Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, began drafting legislation that would require a special federal court that ordinarily grants warrants for such eavesdropping to determine whether the program is constitutional.

Wednesday’s developments illustrated the growing bipartisan pressure from Congress on the Bush administration to address the civil liberties questions raised by its efforts to spy on U.S. residents suspected of terrorist contacts. The White House decision appeared designed to forestall calls for a more aggressive congressional investigation.

The House Intelligence Committee received a closed-door briefing on the program from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Gen. Michael Hayden, the deputy director of national intelligence. A similar briefing is scheduled today for the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Until now, the administration had briefed only the so-called Gang of Eight – the speaker of the House of Representatives, the House Democratic leader, the Senate majority and minority leaders, the Republican chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence committees and the top Democrats on each committee. Wednesday’s briefing was for the full House committee.

It was evident that several Republicans as well as most Democrats were apprehensive about the program when Gonzales testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday about the president’s rationale for conducting the program without judicial review, in possible violation of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Republican objections gained greater political weight when they were raised Wednesday by Rep. Heather Wilson, R-N.M., a member of the House Intelligence Committee and the chair of its Technical and Tactical Intelligence Subcommittee. Wilson told the New York Times that the eavesdropping program by the National Security Agency needed a full congressional review. In response, the White House agreed to be more open with the intelligence committees.