Gwb Plays Well With Children ?

 

White House to share surveillance with Congress

By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
5:31 PM PST, January 31, 2007

Learning to share

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WASHINGTON -- A two-week standoff over documents in the White House domestic spying program ended today when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales agreed to turn over to Congress classified material about secret eavesdropping.
The Bush administration last month said it would put its surveillance of potential terrorist activities under supervision of a federal court but did not disclose details of its new eavesdropping program. A key Senate panel, newly controlled by Democrats, demanded access to the records to gauge whether the administration was going too far or breaking any laws in tracking terror suspects.
The decision to share information with Congress was the latest concession by the Bush administration, which has argued that it had the right to conduct its "war on terror" as it deems necessary and that secrecy is vital to national security.
The documents, which include applications for electronic wiretaps and orders from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court, will be made available to congressional committees only and not released to the public.
"We obviously would be concerned about the public disclosure that may jeopardize the national security of our country," Gonzales said. "But we're working with the Congress to provide the information that it needs."
Some documents were made available to Congress today, according to a Capitol Hill source.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his panel would review the records before "deciding what further oversight or legislative action is necessary." Only then, he said, "can the Judiciary Committee determine whether the administration has reached the proper balance to protect Americans."
Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a moderate who is the ranking Republican on the panel, had joined the Democrats in demanding the records be turned over. At a feisty hearing last month, he criticized Gonzales for his refusal to release the documents even though the FISA court's presiding judge had no objections.
Today, Specter thanked the administration for releasing the records to the committee but said he might make them public, as long as the materials do not violate privacy rules or jeopardize ongoing federal investigations.
"They will not be made public until I've had a chance to see them," he said. But, Specter said, "my own view is that there ought to be the maximum disclosure to the public consistent with national security procedures."
Central to the dispute has been the White House argument that extraordinary steps must be taken to protect Americans from further terrorist plots since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, and conflicting concerns among Democrats and civil libertarians that the spying appears violate individual freedoms.
Under the so-called Terrorist Surveillance Program, the National Security Agency eavesdropped on telephone and e-mail conversations coming into and out of the United States without going through the usual process of first getting a warrant from the FISA court. The program was launched weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks and remained secret until it was exposed in the New York Times in late 2005.
With the Democrats installed as the majority party controlling Capitol Hill, the spying program is likely to become the target of several Congressional investigations into White House operations.
Gonzales said the Justice Department would cooperate with both chambers of Congress. "It's important for us that they understand what we're doing," the attorney general said. "All they have to do is ask."

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