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By Andrea Stone, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration briefed select members of Congress 30 times on the National Security Agency's surveillance programs since the Sept. 11 attacks, according to a declassified list released Wednesday.
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte released the document on the eve of today's confirmation hearings for Gen. Michael Hayden to lead the CIA. Hayden headed the NSA from 1999 to 2005. The list was released as Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, the current NSA director, and a phalanx of aides carrying zippered blue briefcases briefed the full Senate and House intelligence committees for the first time. The sessions ended five months of resistance by the administration, which had balked at expanding the number of lawmakers who received NSA briefings. SEE THE LIST: Lawmakers at NSA briefings since '01 The declassified list shows that half the secret briefings were held in the past five months, after The New York Times revealed the NSA was spying on international calls in the USA without court warrants. Until then, only party leaders and senior members of the intelligence committees attended briefings on the "terrorist surveillance program" at the White House. After President Bush confirmed the warrantless surveillance program in December, the administration included a broader group of members in briefings at the Capitol, the NSA or the White House. In all, 31 members of Congress attended at least one briefing. The administration released the list in response to a request by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was briefed five times in her role as ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee and later as minority leader. Pelosi first requested congressional briefings on post-9/11 surveillance programs in a letter to the NSA on Oct. 11, 2001, saying she was concerned about the president's authority to conduct wiretapping. The first briefing was held Oct. 25. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was briefed seven times. The current ranking Democrat on the intelligence panel, Jane Harman of California, was briefed eight times. Wednesday's briefings to the intelligence panels were called to help members understand the NSA programs in advance of today's confirmation hearing for Hayden before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chairman Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said. "There was no way we could fulfill our collective constitutional responsibilities without that knowledge," Roberts said. Hayden led the NSA when the agency conducted the warrantless wiretapping and, according to a USA TODAY report last week, secretly collected the domestic phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. Citing the classified nature of the briefings, none of the members interviewed would say whether the sessions included information about the USA TODAY report or any other specific program. "One of the problems is you never know what you don't know," said Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who was briefed on NSA operations for the first time Wednesday. "They've been giving us quite a bit of information. How comprehensive it is, I can't say."
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