- CRAWFORD, Tx (Bloomberg)
- President George W. Bush said he'll use presidential authority to sidestep
a rule requiring his administration to provide Congress with written notice
of U.S. intelligence activities.
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- Bush made the announcement in signing the intelligence
authorization act for fiscal year 2002, which includes an amendment stating
that reports to Congress should ``always be in written form.''
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- Requiring written notice of planned U.S. intelligence
activities may ``impair foreign relations'' and national security, Bush
said in a statement. The law also increases the overall intelligence budget
7 percent.
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- The move follows a spat between the president and members
of Congress over how much classified information he should provide Capitol
Hill about U.S. military operations in Afghanistan. In October, Bush tried
to limit access to such information to leaders of both parties and the
chairmen of the congressional committees with jurisdiction over the military.
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- Bush sent Congress a memo laying out the restrictions
after leaks from an intelligence briefing produced stories that said administration
officials told members of Congress there was a ``100 percent chance'' of
retaliatory terrorist strikes should the U.S. attack Afghanistan over the
Sept. 11 terrorist assaults in New York and Washington.
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- After Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle and legislators
of both parties argued that information-sharing is part of the process,
Bush backed away from the restrictions on who would get intelligence briefings
from the Defense and State departments.
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- http://quote.bloomberg.com/fgcgi.cgi?T=uspolitics_news.ht&s=APCz2EBapQnVzaCB0
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