House digging into canceled CIA program

The House intelligence committee has asked the CIA to provide documents about a now-canceled program aimed at killing al Qaeda leaders, congressional officials said Tuesday.

The agency spent at least $1 million on the eight-year program before it was terminated last month, one congressional official said. Intelligence officials say the operation never progressed beyond a planning stage.

The CIA said Tuesday that the agency would cooperate in the House move, a precursor to what would likely become a full-blown investigation into the secret operation and why the program was not disclosed to Congress. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

CIA Director Leon E. Panetta, meanwhile, ordered a thorough internal review, agency spokesman George Little said.

Mr. Panetta told Congress on June 24 that he had canceled the effort to kill al Qaeda leaders with hit teams soon after learning about the operation. Mr. Panetta also told lawmakers that former Vice President Dick Cheney directed the CIA not to inform Congress of the specifics of the secret program.

President George W. Bush authorized the killing of al Qaeda leaders in 2001. Congress was aware of that notification.

A congressional official said the secret CIA program was meant to carry out ground attacks with hit teams. Most attempts to kill al Qaeda’s leaders, thought to be hiding in Pakistan’s troubled western border region, have used armed drone aircraft because it is difficult terrain, controlled by sometimes hostile tribes. But those strikes have sometimes killed and injured innocent civilians and caused outrage in Pakistan.

House intelligence committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, Texas Democrat, is expected to decide as early as this week whether to press ahead with a full investigation into the CIA operation.

The House intelligence committee will try to establish how much was spent on the effort, whether any training was conducted, and whether any officials traveled in association with the program, a committee official said.

Those factors would determine whether the program had progressed enough to warrant congressional notification, the official said.

Sen. Russ Feingold, Wisconsin Democrat, said Monday that the CIA’s failure to brief Congress violated the law.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, Michigan Republican, the senior Republican member of the committee, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that he would support an investigation. But from what he knows now, Mr. Hoekstra said, he does not think the effort merited congressional notification.

Like many other Republicans, Mr. Hoekstra thinks the Democratic anger about not being notified of the program sooner is meant to bolster House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who came under an avalanche of Republican criticism in May for saying she thinks the CIA lied to her about its harsh interrogation program in 2002.

The House has delayed floor debate on an intelligence bill that would require the president to expand the number of members of Congress briefed on covert operations - that is, secret missions undertaken in foreign countries to affect their political, military or economic situation.

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