Pelosi Statement in Response to Inspectors General Report on President Bush's Warrantless...

Pelosi Statement in Response to Inspectors General Report on President Bush's
Warrantless Surveillance Program

WASHINGTON, July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Speaker Pelosi issued the
following statement today in response to a report by the Inspectors General of
the Departments of Defense and Justice, the Central Intelligence Agency, the
National Security Agency, and the Office of the Director National Intelligence
on President Bush's warrantless surveillance program:

"The Inspectors General FISA report brings to light the disturbing facts and
circumstances surrounding President Bush's warrantless surveillance program.
Particularly disturbing was the observation of former Deputy Attorney General
James Comey that the legal analysis under which the program operated for years
'entailed ignoring an act of Congress, and doing so without full congressional
notification.' No President should be able to operate outside the law.

"The House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees will closely examine the
findings and recommendations of the classified and unclassified reports, and
will conduct appropriate oversight of electronic surveillance activities."

Notes:

On page 23, the report states that the Speaker, along with several other
Congressional leaders, disagreed publicly with former Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales' testimony in July 2007 that the "consensus" of Congressional leaders
was that the program should continue. Pelosi, Senator Jay Rockefeller, and
former Senator Tom Daschle issued statements saying that they told then-Vice
President Dick Cheney in a March 2004 meeting that there was no consensus
among Congressional leaders that the program should continue.

In addition, Speaker Pelosi wrote the following letter in October 2001, when
she was the Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. The letter
was declassified in January 2006 at her request. The letter to Lieutenant
General Michael Hayden, then National Security Agency (NSA) Director,
expressed concerns about NSA electronic surveillance activities and the
authority for those activities. Pelosi also released the response letter from
Hayden. Both Pelosi's letter and Hayden's response were redacted when they
were declassified.

The text of letters follow:

October 11, 2001

Lieutenant General Michael V. Hayden, USAF
Director
National Security Agency
Fort George G. Mead, Maryland 20755
Washington, D.C. 20340-1001

Dear General Hayden:

During your appearance before the committee on October 1, you indicated that
you had been operating since the September 11 attacks with an expansive view
of your authorities with respect to the conduct of electronic surveillance
under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and related statutes, orders,
regulations, and guidelines. You seemed to be inviting expressions of concern
from us, if there were any, and, after the briefing was over and I had a
chance to reflect on what you said, I instructed staff to get more information
on this matter for me. For several reasons, including what I consider to be an
overly broad interpretation of President Bush's directive of October 5 on
sharing with Congress "classified or sensitive law enforcement information" it
has not been possible to get answers to my questions.

Without those answers, the concerns I have about what you said on the 1st can
not be resolved, and I wanted to bring them to your attention directly. You
indicated that you were treating as a matter of first impression, [redacted ]
being of foreign intelligence interest. As a result, you were forwarding the
intercepts, and any information [redacted ] without first receiving a request
for that identifying information to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Although I may be persuaded by the strength of your analysis [redacted ] I
believe you have a much more difficult case to make [redacted ] Therefore, I
am concerned whether, and to what extent, the National Security Agency has
received specific presidential authorization for the operations you are
conducting. Until I understand better the legal analysis regarding the
sufficiency of the authority which underlies your decision on the appropriate
way to proceed on this matter, I will continue to be concerned.

Sincerely,

NANCY PELOSI
Ranking Democrat

18 October 2001

The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Ranking Member, House Permanent
Select Committee on Intelligence
H-405, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Pelosi:

Thank you for the opportunity to clarify any ambiguity that may have arisen as
a result of my briefing on October 1 to members of the House and Senate
Intelligence Committees.

In my briefing, I was attempting to emphasize that I used my authorities to
adjust NSA's collection and reporting.

[redacted] ] Again, thank you for allowing me to clarify this matter.

MICHAEL V. HAYDEN
Lieutenant General, USAF
Director, NSA

SOURCE Office of the Speaker of the House

Brendan Daly, Nadeam Elshami, Drew Hammill, +1-202-226-7616, all of the Office
of the Speaker of the House