The New York Times reports breaking news that will show up in tomorrow’s newspaper:
In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.
The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.
But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department’s tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.
The letter, which Rep. Hoekstra did not disclose and which contains criticism Rep. Hoekstra has only made privately to Bush and not in public (and which you can read for yourself here) reads with emphases added:
Finally, Mr. President, but perhaps most importantly, I want to reemphasize that the Administration has the legal responsibility to “fully and currently” inform the House and Senate Intelligence Committees of its intelligence and intelligence-related activities. Although the law gives you and the committees flexibility on how we accomplish that (I have been fully supportive of your concerns in this respect), it is clear that we, the Congress, are to be provided all information about such activities. I have learned of some alleged Intelligence Community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. In the next few days I will be formally requesting information on these activities. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the Administration, a violation of law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the Members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies.
Actually, Rep. Hoekstra has it a bit wrong: the Bush administration is collecting information on our enemies and, concurrently, our own citizens.
So what new brand of spying without warrants on Americans is about to be uncovered? Have they put spycams up our toilets? Bugs in our bonnets? Or have they been listening in as our mothers-in-law kvetch during those weekly Mimosa happy hours down at the Lioness Club Lounge?
