Playing Politics With Intelligence

"[I]n a sharply worded letter released Friday, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Mike McConnell, the director of national intelligence, said the return to the older standards for wiretapping had hurt intelligence collection. . . .

"'Our experience in the past few days since the expiration of the act demonstrates that these concerns are neither speculative nor theoretical,' the letter said. 'Allowing the act to expire without passing the bipartisan Senate bill had real and negative consequences for our national security. Indeed, this has led directly to a degraded intelligence capability.'

"The letter gave no details on actual intelligence losses.

"Mr. Mukasey and Mr. McConnell said the uncertainty created by the lapse of the law had 'reduced cooperation' from some telecommunication providers, causing them to delay or refuse to comply with wiretap requests.

"Generally, the government has the ability to compel the cooperation of private companies and assure them legal immunity with a valid court order. But intelligence officials said compelling cooperation was a cumbersome process that could require litigation, and they predicted that more private companies might resist cooperating if the current impasse and uncertainty over the law continued.

"Democratic leaders blamed the administration for any problems, saying its refusal to agree to a brief extension of the law had caused any lapses."

Josh Meyer wrote in Sunday's Los Angeles Times: "A day after warning that potentially critical terrorism intelligence was being lost because Congress had not finished work on a controversial espionage law, the U.S. attorney general and the national intelligence director said Saturday that the government was receiving the information -- at least temporarily. . . .

"One Democratic congressional official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter, expressed skepticism that any significant gap had existed, noting that existing rules permit continued monitoring of known terrorists and their associates. . . .

"'This is serious backpedaling by the DNI,' the Democratic official said of McConnell. 'He's been saying for the last week that the sky is falling, and the sky is not falling.'"

Reuters reports: "The Bush administration said on Saturday U.S. telecommunications companies have agreed to cooperate 'for the time being' with spy agencies' wiretaps, despite an ongoing battle between the White House and Congress over new terrorism surveillance legislation. . . .

"'Although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so in light of the ongoing uncertainty and have indicated they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists,' the statement said."

The chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence and judiciary committees -- Jay Rockefeller, Patrick Leahy, Silvestre Reyes and John Conyers-- write in a Washington Post op-ed this morning that "instead of working with Congress to achieve the best policies to keep our country safe, once again President Bush has resorted to scare tactics and political games. . . .