[Mb-civic] White House Working to Avoid Wiretap Probe - Washington Post

[William Swiggard]

White House Working to Avoid Wiretap Probe
But Some Republicans Say Bush Must Be More Open About Eavesdropping Program

By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 20, 2006; A08

At two key moments in recent days, White House officials contacted 
congressional leaders just ahead of intelligence committee meetings that 
could have stirred demands for a deeper review of the administration's 
warrantless-surveillance program, according to House and Senate sources.

In both cases, the administration was spared the outcome it most feared, 
and it won praise in some circles for showing more openness to 
congressional oversight.

But the actions have angered some lawmakers who think the 
administration's purported concessions mean little. Some Republicans 
said that the White House came closer to suffering a big setback than is 
widely known, and that President Bush must be more forthcoming about the 
eavesdropping program to retain Congress's good will.

The first White House scramble came on Feb. 8, before the House 
intelligence committee began a closed briefing on the program, which 
Bush began in late 2001 but which was disclosed only recently. The 
program allows the National Security Agency to monitor communications 
involving a person in the United States and one outside, provided one is 
a possible terrorism suspect. The administration says the program is 
exempt from the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which 
provides for domestic surveillance warrants. Many lawmakers and legal 
scholars disagree.

The House hearing came a day after a prominent Republican member called 
for an inquiry into the wiretapping program, and two days after Attorney 
General Alberto R. Gonzales had angered some senators by defending it 
without providing details. On Feb. 8, House members were grumbling that 
the administration apparently planned to have Gonzales, joined by former 
NSA director Michael V. Hayden, provide the same limited briefing to the 
House intelligence committee.

But the White House unexpectedly announced that Gonzales and Hayden 
would give the 21-member committee more insight into the program's 
"procedural aspects." The briefing placated many members. When committee 
leaders later said the panel will look further into the program, they 
made clear it will be a controlled process rather than the freewheeling 
investigation some Democrats want.

The second White House flurry occurred last Thursday, as the Senate 
intelligence committee readied for a showdown over a motion by top 
Democrat John D. Rockefeller IV (W.Va.) to start a broad inquiry into 
the surveillance program. White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. 
-- who had visited the Capitol two days earlier with Vice President 
Cheney to lobby Republicans on the program -- spoke by phone with Sen. 
Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine), according to Senate sources briefed on the call.

Snowe earlier had expressed concerns about the program's legality and 
civil liberties safeguards, but Card was adamant about restricting 
congressional oversight and control, said the sources, who spoke on the 
condition of anonymity, citing office policies. Snowe seemed taken aback 
by Card's intransigence, and the call amounted to "a net step backward" 
for the White House, said a source outside Snowe's office.

Snowe contacted fellow committee Republican Chuck Hagel (Neb.), who also 
had voiced concerns about the program. They arranged a three-way phone 
conversation with Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.).

Until then, Roberts apparently thought he had the votes to defeat 
Rockefeller's motion in the committee, which Republicans control nine to 
seven, the sources said. But Snowe and Hagel told the chairman that if 
he called up the motion, they would support it, assuring its passage, 
the sources said.

When the closed meeting began, Roberts averted a vote on Rockefeller's 
motion by arranging for a party-line vote to adjourn until March 7. The 
move infuriated Rockefeller, who told reporters, "The White House has 
applied heavy pressure in recent weeks to prevent the committee from 
doing its job."

Hagel and Snowe declined interview requests after the meeting, but 
sources close to them say they bridle at suggestions that they buckled 
under administration heat. The White House must engage "in good-faith 
negotiations" with Congress, Snowe said in a statement.

Roberts, reacting to Hagel and Snowe's actions, told the New York Times 
on Friday that he now supports bringing the NSA program under FISA's 
jurisdiction in some manner, a stand that could put him at odds with the 
administration. The White House has praised a plan by Sen. Mike DeWine 
(R-Ohio) to draft legislation that would exempt the NSA program from 
FISA, while providing for congressional oversight.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said that Bush "is open to ideas 
from Congress regarding legislation, and we've committed to working with 
Congress on a bill."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/19/AR2006021901031.html?nav=hcmodule
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