WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives intelligence committee, which is examining a series of national security leaks, will investigate a Washington Post story on a secret CIA global prison system, officials said on Thursday.
The committee's Republican chairman, Rep. Peter Hoekstra (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, said the committee would look at a number of highly publicized disclosures of secrets, including a classified $44 billion figure for the annual U.S. intelligence budget.
"...The leaks that we have seen in the intelligence community over the last 12 to 18 months have done irreparable harm to our ability to effectively conduct the war on terror," Hoekstra told a news conference.
He said most of the damage had been done to U.S. relations with foreign countries that have conducted joint operations with American intelligence.
Under an agreement between House and Senate Republicans, Hoekstra said the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had been designated to complete a congressional probe of U.S. prewar intelligence onIraq.
That agreement appeared to undermine a Democratic effort to press the House intelligence panel to launch its own review of prewar intelligence on Iraq. Much of it, including reports of weapons of mass destruction, turned out to be false.
Rep. Jane Harman (news, bio, voting record) of California, top Democrat on Hoekstra's panel, proposed a House review of Iraq intelligence a week ago and on Thursday accused Republicans of shutting down a 2003 plan for such an inquiry.
"As we move forward, the Senate intelligence committee is going to continue doing prewar intelligence, the House is going to take the lead on the leaks investigation and we will keep each other informed as to ... progress," Hoekstra said.
"We don't see it as necessary for us to do a redundant effort," he added.
MANIPULATED INTELLIGENCE
Meanwhile, the White House responded to allegations by Democrats that administration officials manipulated intelligence on Iraq while making their case for war.
"Some of the critics today believed themselves in 2002 that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction," said national security adviser Stephen Hadley.
"For those critics to ignore their own past statements exposes the hollowness of their current attacks," he said.
Republican leaders in the Senate and House asked the intelligence panels of both chambers on Tuesday to investigate the November 2 Washington Post article about CIA prisons.
But a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee said on Thursday that the Senate was suspending its probe because the CIA had asked the Justice Department to investigate the matter.
The Post said the CIA had been holding and interrogating al Qaeda captives at secret facilities in Eastern Europe as part of a global covert prison system established after the September 11, 2001, attacks. It did not specify the countries.
The report caused an international outcry against the Bush administration and prompted an investigation by the Council of Europe, the continent's top human rights watchdog.
Hoekstra said the scope, methods and final product of the intelligence committee's leaks investigation had yet to be worked out among panel members including Harman.
He expected committee members to hold a hearing later this year but otherwise rely on staff investigations until early 2006.
(Additional reporting by Vicki Allen and Adam Entous)