Senate Intelligence Committee

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers leading the Senate investigation of the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes said there were gaps in the testimony of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden yesterday and outlined plans to call a series of witnesses as part of an expanding probe. "We had a useful and not yet complete hearing," said West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in comments after the 90-minute, closed-door session with the CIA director.

One of the most critical matters facing Congress is the need to enact long-term legislation updating our nation's foreign intelligence surveillance laws. Intercepting the communications of terrorists and other intelligence targets has given us crucial insights into the intentions of our adversaries and has helped us to detect and prevent terrorist attacks. Until recently, our surveillance efforts were hampered by the unintended consequences of an outdated law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was enacted in 1978 to establish a system of judicial approval for certain intelligence surveillance activities in the U.S. The requirement that a judge issue an order before communications can be intercepted serves important purposes when the target of the surveillance is a person in our country, where constitutional privacy interests are most significant.

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have struck a deal with the White House that is supposed to bring more oversight and scrutiny to the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program. But the deal smacks of partisan accommodation, and Democrats are right to fight it. Too bad there aren't a few Republicans with enough backbone to join them. The White House has conducted its warrantless monitoring of people on American soil and known or suspected terrorists abroad while giving minimal information to anyone outside the executive branch and thumbing its nose at almost any suggestion of limits on its powers.

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers leading the Senate investigation of the CIA's destruction of interrogation videotapes said there were gaps in the testimony of CIA Director Michael V. Hayden yesterday and outlined plans to call a series of witnesses as part of an expanding probe. "We had a useful and not yet complete hearing," said West Virginia Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, in comments after the 90-minute, closed-door session with the CIA director.

One of the most critical matters facing Congress is the need to enact long-term legislation updating our nation's foreign intelligence surveillance laws. Intercepting the communications of terrorists and other intelligence targets has given us crucial insights into the intentions of our adversaries and has helped us to detect and prevent terrorist attacks. Until recently, our surveillance efforts were hampered by the unintended consequences of an outdated law, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which was enacted in 1978 to establish a system of judicial approval for certain intelligence surveillance activities in the U.S. The requirement that a judge issue an order before communications can be intercepted serves important purposes when the target of the surveillance is a person in our country, where constitutional privacy interests are most significant.

WASHINGTON -- The leaders of three intelligence agencies that spend half the nation's intelligence budget would gain stature and get a closer look from Congress if a proposal from Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski becomes law. The Maryland Democrat wants the heads of the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency to be subject to Senate confirmation. Mikulski, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said her measure would, for the first time, require the Senate to weigh in on "the suitability" of nominees for key intelligence posts.

ALTHOUGH ANTHONY LAKE was always a questionable choice as Director of Central Intelligence, he did not deserve the partisan pummeling he got from the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Nor did his National Security Council deserve the high-handed exploitation it got from frenzied fund-raisers at the Democratic National Committee.Mr. Lake is right that "Washington has gone haywire." But Washington is constantly haywire; it's just a matter of degree. There is poignancy in Mr. Lake's wish that the country at large "will demand that Washington give priority to policy over partisanship, to governing over 'gotcha.

WASHINGTON - John D. Negroponte, President Bush's choice to become the nation's first intelligence director, pledged yesterday to spearhead sweeping reform of the U.S. spy community and to ensure that U.S. agents abide by "all applicable laws" in their pursuit of terrorist networks and other targets. But Negroponte offered few specifics during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee and resisted some lawmakers' calls for a review of the CIA's policies in handling detainees and the controversial U.S. practice of turning terrorist suspects over to countries known to engage in torture.

Congress members have the best jobs. They get a two-month Christmas vacation. The first session of the 103rd Congress ended Nov. 26. The second session resumes on Jan. 25. This beats every college we know about.Many members used this time for travel. Not home, minding the store, chatting up the constituents or bringing in the winter supply of firewood. Rather, abroad, broadening their minds, sophisticating up to their responsibilities.About a dozen House members flew to Geneva to observe the GATT talks.

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said last week that his committee does not have the resources to investigate allegations of hiring and promotion discrimination at the National Security Agency, but that he would support such a probe spearheaded by the Pentagon inspector general's office."

Washington -- A Senate bill that sets funding levels for U.S. spy agencies suggests that the CIA's secret network of overseas prisons should be shut down unless the Bush administration can demonstrate that they are "necessary, lawful and in the best interests of the United States." The measure amounts to a fresh attack by Congress on the five-year-old detention program, which has been credited with providing valuable intelligence on terrorism but has also been condemned by other countries.

WASHINGTON -- In a move to reduce secrecy around the nation's spy agencies, the Senate Intelligence Committee has approved a measure to make public the total amount spent on spying and to direct the Central Intelligence Agency to release an internal report examining its failure to prevent the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The bill, approved in a closed session Wednesday, also would require President Bush to provide Congress with all daily intelligence briefs concerning Iraq in the six years before the war began in March 2003.

WASHINGTON -- The National Security Agency's impending electricity shortfall is "sort of a national catastrophe," Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said yesterday. Rockefeller, who took over as head of the panel when Democrats regained control of the Senate this month, called the power shortage a symptom of a larger problem: the NSA's failure to manage long-range issues. "They haven't focused on the large picture," the West Virginia Democrat said in an interview.

WASHINGTON -- CIA director nominee Gen. Michael V. Hayden staunchly defended the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program yesterday, telling senators considering his confirmation that he believes the effort is legal and carefully crafted to protect civil liberties, while acknowledging that the privacy of American citizens is a "constant" concern. Hayden, who ran the National Security Agency when the surveillance program began, underwent more than six hours of public questioning by members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on subjects that included NSA spying and the CIA's ability to provide accurate information.

WASHINGTON -- With his confirmation hearing a week away, Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden met privately with senators yesterday, working to ease concerns about his nomination to be the CIA's next director. Democratic Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois said Hayden indicated to him that the Bush administration "may be closer" to asking for a change in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to include the National Security Agency's warrantless wiretapping. The 1978 law requires the government to obtain a warrant before spying on people inside the country - and while the administration has argued that President Bush had the authority to order the eavesdropping, some lawmakers have accused the White House of breaking the law. Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said she talked with Hayden about his vision for the CIA during her 40-minute session with him. Mikulski, who said she knows Hayden well from his tenure at Fort Meade-based NSA, called him "a competent professional who has really served his country."

Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee have struck a deal with the White House that is supposed to bring more oversight and scrutiny to the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program. But the deal smacks of partisan accommodation, and Democrats are right to fight it. Too bad there aren't a few Republicans with enough backbone to join them. The White House has conducted its warrantless monitoring of people on American soil and known or suspected terrorists abroad while giving minimal information to anyone outside the executive branch and thumbing its nose at almost any suggestion of limits on its powers.

Now that the Senate Intelligence Committee has voted 11-4 to confirm Robert M. Gates as head of the Central Intelligence Agency, it seems likely the full Senate will concur today. If Mr. Gates knew more about the Iran-contra scandal than he confessed, if he slanted intelligence analysis to please his bosses in the Reagan administration, if he browbeat subordinates and undermined morale, apparently most senators don't want to know. They are learning the uses of "deniability," a field in which Mr. Gates is an expert.

WASHINGTON -- Senior members of the Senate Intelligence Committee said yesterday that they were shocked to find that a huge new spy satellite headquarters under construction outside Washington would cost $350 million. They said that the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency had concealed the full expense of the project from them."You've got to see it to believe it," said Sen. John Warner of Virginia, the ranking Republican on the committee. "I was absolutely astonished at the magnitude and the proportions of this structure."

The chorus of Republicans willing to break ranks to hold the Bush administration accountable for its controversial domestic spying program is growing and getting louder. The White House needs to listen carefully and recognize Congress' institutional mandate to provide checks and balances. And Congress needs to rally against excessive executive actions. For weeks, the administration has arrogantly insisted that the president had all the authority he needed - mostly through his inherent constitutional powers as commander in chief or through a resolution passed by Congress immediately after 9/11 - to order warrantless wiretaps of people in America who communicate with terrorists abroad.

WASHINGTON -- Senators pressed ahead yesterday with proposals to authorize President Bush's domestic spying program, as Senate Intelligence Committee members debated whether to investigate the surveillance activities. The Senate Intelligence Committee will meet today and is expected to vote on a Democratic proposal to investigate the National Security Agency program, which the president has said is intercepting communications between terrorist suspects and people in the United States. A vote of eight of the committee's 16 members is needed to initiate an investigation, and the committee's seven Democrats support it. Most Republicans are opposed, but Sen. Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska have said that they have not made up their minds.