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Letter: Briefings shouldn’t have been limited

Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006 | 8:18 a.m.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said on Wednesday that the limited congressional briefings that the Bush administration has provided on a National Security Agency eavesdropping program violated the law.

Rep. Jane Harman of California said the briefings did not comply with the National Security Act of 1947. That law requires the House and Senate Intelligence Committees to be "kept fully and currently informed" about the spy agencies' activities.

The briefings on the program, under which Americans and other people in the United States are selected for eavesdropping without court warrants, were limited to the so-called Gang of Eight. That consists of the Republican and Democratic leaders of each House and of the Intelligence Committees.

The law allows briefings to be limited to the eight leaders only in cases of covert action. The National Security Agency program does not qualify as a covert action, which the law says does not include activities whose "primary purpose is to acquire intelligence."

John Marchese

Henderson

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