Democrats May Investigate Secret Program

CIA Director Leon Panetta alerted lawmakers about the secret program at closed-door briefings for the House and Senate intelligence committees. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
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After listening to Panetta's June 24 presentation, some Republican committee members said they wanted to know more about the program but were not overly alarmed. "I didn't walk out of there saying this is some horrible thing," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said.

Schakowsky, who declined to comment on Cheney's role, said lawmakers have learned that the program was started shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and that the orders about who was to be informed about its existence were given at that time. "That's when the parameters were all laid out," she said.

Two former agency officials who were familiar with the program said it involved a series of proposals over several years for providing the intelligence agencies with a "needed capability," one of the officials said. The latest proposal was aired in the spring of 2008 but was not carried out, the officials said. The program did not involve interrogations of detainees or surveillance of U.S.-based communications, they said.

Paul Gimigliano, a CIA spokesman, said it was "not agency practice to discuss what may or may not have been said in a classified briefing." Gimigliano said in a statement that agency officials brought the program to Panetta with the recommendation that he go to Capitol Hill with the information.

"That was also his view, and he took swift, decisive action to put it into effect," he said.

Rep. Silvestre Reyes (D-Tex.), chairman of the intelligence committee, has said the panel was "affirmatively lied to" regarding this program's existence. Reyes had not had a formal discussion with Rep. Peter Hoekstra (Mich.), the ranking Republican on the committee, about opening a formal investigation. But lawmakers and aides said such a step was a formality and that a formal investigation probably would take place.

Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), a senior member of the intelligence panel, said she was calling for the committee to hire an outside counsel to investigate the issue. "We have to know who gave the order for this, who gave the order to conceal this, where did they draw the money for this," she said.

Eshoo said the committee may have to use its subpoena power to interview some of the top officials who oversaw intelligence issues during the Bush administration.