Fergie's Tech Blog

Democrats Turn Up The Heat on Domestic Surveillance

Mark Hosenball writes in Newsweek:

It’s a day they’ve been waiting for: on Thursday, Bush administration critics in Congress will get the chance to grill intelligence officials in public about the National Security Agency’s warrantless monitoring of communications between suspected Al Qaeda operatives overseas and people they contact inside the United States.

National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and his principal deputy, Gen. Michael Hayden, are scheduled to appear with several other top intelligence officials at what was supposed to be a routine Senate Intelligence Committee hearing to discuss the intelligence community’s assessment of current threats to the United States, including terrorist attacks and nuclear proliferation.

However, congressional sources say Democrats on the Senate committee plan to use the hearing to grill officials about alleged NSA domestic surveillance. They are particularly interested in questioning Hayden, who before joining Negroponte’s office, served as NSA director. The controversial NSA monitoring program was launched under his command.

posted by Fergie @ 2/02/2006 09:41:00 AM