The Bush administration appears to have violated the National Security Act by limiting its briefings about a warrantless domestic eavesdropping program to a handful of congressional leaders, according to a memo from a research arm of the U.S. Congress.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) opinion said the amended 1947 law requires President George W. Bush to keep all members of the House and Senate intelligence committees "fully and currently informed" of such intelligence activities as the domestic surveillance effort, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

The White House has said it informed congressional leaders about the program operated by the National Security Agency (NSA) in more than a dozen briefings, but has refused to provide further details.

The briefings have been limited to the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate and of the Intelligence Committees, the so-called Gang of Eight. Limiting the briefings to just eight members of Congress "would appear to be inconsistent with the law," the memorandum said.

The memo, written by Alfred Cumming, a national security specialist at the research service, was the second report this month from the nonpartisan CRS to question the legality of aspects of Bush's domestic spying program. A Jan. 6 report concluded that the administration's justifications for the program conflicted with current law.

The analysis, sent to the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, was requested by Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the committee, who wrote in a letter to Bush earlier this month that limiting information about the eavesdropping program violated the law and provided for poor oversight.

Bush has publicly acknowledged issuing an order after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that allowed the NSA to intercept telephone and e-mail exchanges between the United States and overseas without court authorization. The cases were limited to people suspected of al Qaeda ties, Bush and his aides said.

The CRS report pointed out that "in extremely rare circumstance " the sensitivity of intelligence operations or collection programs may require that some aspects be withheld "to preserve essential secrecy." In the case of a covert action, the president can limit disclosure "to meet extraordinary circumstances affecting vital interests of the United States."

But that probably does not apply in this case. Covert action is defined as an operation in which the role of the U.S. government would be denied if exposed, according to the CRS report.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled an open hearing on the eavesdropping program for Feb. 6.

Source: Xinhua