Bill calls for wider disclosure of covert US spy operations

Washington: Criticised for failing to challenge the intelligence operations of the Bush administration, key lawmakers have endorsed a bill that would force the president to make fuller disclosure of covert spy programmes.

The legislation, which was approved by the House Intelligence Committee late Thursday, would eliminate the president's ability to keep classified operations secret from any member of the panel, according to Democrats who described the provision.

The measure was included in a broad intelligence community spending bill that also would expand funding for spy agencies and require the CIA to videotape all of its interrogations of terrorism suspects.

Democrats described the measure as an important effort to bolster congressional oversight of intelligence activities. Representative Silvestre Reyes, from Texas, chairman of the intelligence panel, said the bill would "have wide-ranging consequences for the way the committee conducts its business." But Republicans voted against the measure.

Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the ranking Republican on the panel, said he favoured an approach proposed last year that would have allowed the president to restrict briefings on sensitive topics with the permission of the top Democrat and Republican on the committee.

The debate centres on the controversial practice of restricting intelligence briefings to the so-called "Gang of Eight," a group that includes the party leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the ranking Democrat and Republican on each intelligence committee.

The language adopted by the House committee on Thursday would strike a provision in the nation's main intelligence statute that allows restricted briefings.

Instead, the president would be obligated to inform all 15 members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, as well as their 22 counterparts in the House.

The bill calls for the committee to draft procedures that would allow restricted briefings under special circumstances.

"If this provision becomes law, Gang of Eight briefings will either be eliminated or very much restricted," said a Democratic congressional aide familiar with the legislation. The measure has yet to be considered by the full House.

Lawmakers objected bitterly that the Bush administration routinely withheld information from members to reduce their ability to scrutinise or challenge controversial programmes, including CIA interrogations and electronic surveillance of US citizens.