August 01, 2007

McConnell Admits Spy Program Is Part Of Broader Effort

President Bush's critics have long insisted there is more to the administration's NSA spying program than anyone admitted, and new revelations from the country's top intelligence official now confirms some of those suspicions.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said yesterday that the scope of the NSA's surveillance activities extended beyond the warrantless phone taps and e-mail monitoring that Bush described in December 2005.

In a letter sent yesterday to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Washington Post reports, McConnell wrote that the executive order Bush gave after the 9/11 attacks covered "a number of... intelligence activities" -- not just the wiretap program.

"This is the only aspect of the NSA activities that can be discussed publicly, because it is the only aspect of those various activities whose existence has been officially acknowledged," McConnell said.

The letter also claims that the Terrorist Surveillance Program often referenced by the administration applied to "one particular aspect of these activities, and nothing more."

McConnell was apparently trying to defend Alberto Gonzales' testimony to Congress, tacitly backing him up by suggesting his statements about the secret program were truthful because that moniker wasn't used until 2006.

The letter never specifically mentions Gonzales, but the attorney general -- beleaguered by allegations about both the spy program and the U.S. attorney scandal, and now the target of impeachment demands from House Democrats -- is at the center of debate over the spy program and its broader implications.

Posted at 10:21 AM
Posted to: Arlen Specter, Congress, Mike McConnell, President Bush, Senate, Terrorism
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