Washington – The nation’s top intelligence official drew criticism from Capitol Hill and government watchdog groups Thursday for disclosing previously classified details about the Bush administration’s warrantless-wiretapping program.
In a newspaper interview last week, J. Michael McConnell said fewer than 100 people in the United States were under surveillance by the National Security Agency at any time, compared with thousands overseas.
The disclosures stunned members of Congress. They were not allowed to discuss those details publicly during debate this month on legislation sought by McConnell granting the government new powers to eavesdrop on e-mails and phone calls that pass into or through data networks in the United States.
“I’m shocked,” said Rep. Jane Harman, D-Calif., chairwoman of an intelligence panel on the House Committee on Homeland Security. “It is stunning to me to read that he has decided to share these details with a small-town newspaper.”
Harman said the numbers that McConnell disclosed regarding the number of people inside the U.S. who are targets of electronic eavesdropping “were so far as I knew as highly classified as any aspect of that program.”
McConnell’s comments came during an interview with the El Paso Times while he was in that Texas city last week to appear at a conference on border security. His remarks also drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has challenged the legality of the spying program and fought in court to compel the Bush administration to disclose more details about it.
As the nation’s top intelligence official, McConnell has authority to declassify material and would not face any legal consequence for the disclosures.
