Calls grow for probe of CIA al-Qaida program

updated 7:30 a.m. ET July 14, 2009

WASHINGTON - Congressional demands for an investigation grew on Monday over new disclosures that a secret CIA program to capture or kill al-Qaida leaders was concealed from Congress for eight years, perhaps at the behest of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The program, which never got off the ground and remains shrouded in mystery, was designed to target leaders of the terrorism network at close range, rather than with air strikes that risked civilian casualties, government officials with knowledge of the operation said Monday.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. The program was canceled last month by CIA Director Leon Panetta shortly after he himself first learned of it.

Some Democratic lawmakers suggested the failure to notify the congressional intelligence committees violated the oversight laws, which require the intelligence community to keep Congress informed of its activities.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that House and Senate intelligence committees should "take whatever actions they believe are necessary to get more information on the subject," including whether Cheney played a direct role in proposing the secret program and withholding information from Congress.

'Deep concerns about the program'
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., joining the ranks of those calling for a thorough investigations, said, "Individuals who ordered that Congress be kept in the dark should be held accountable." Feingold said he had "deep concerns about the program itself," adding that he had written to President Barack Obama to ask for the probe.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has said that being kept in the dark by the CIA broke the law and "should never, ever happen again." But defenders of Cheney suggested that no laws were broken because the counterterrorism program never got beyond the talking stage.

However, the issue might come down to whether any tax dollars were spent on the planning — and thus subject to congressional scrutiny.

"There are points governed by law at which the executive branch is obligated to notify Congress of an anticipated intelligence activity," said Vicki Divoll, a former deputy counsel to the CIA Counterterrorist Center who was general counsel of the Senate Intelligence Committee from 2001 to 2003.

"Even if arguably those points weren't reached, the executive branch may not spend money developing a program if those funds had not been appropriated and authorized by Congress," said Divoll, who teaches government at the U.S. Naval Academy.

It presented a delicate dilemma for the Obama administration, which so far has steered clear of joining congressional calls for thoroughly investigating controversial intelligence-community actions under President George W. Bush and Cheney and prosecuting those who broke the law.

Robert Gibbs, Obama's spokesman, continued on this careful path on Monday, saying Panetta was reviewing how keeping the information from congressional intelligence leaders "came to pass and I think that's wise."

"The president believes that Congress should always be briefed fully and in a timely manner in accordance with the law. Those are his beliefs as it relates to any of these programs," Gibbs said.

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