WASHINGTON — The nation's top intelligence official drew sharp criticism from Capitol Hill and government watchdog groups Thursday for disclosing previously classified details about the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program.
In a newspaper interview last week, Director of National Intelligence J. Michael McConnell provided new details on the scope of the espionage program, saying that fewer than 100 people in the United States were under surveillance by the National Security Agency at any time, compared with thousands overseas.
He also disclosed details about a previously secret decision by a special intelligence court that ruled that the program was in violation of U.S. law. The deliberations of the court are generally classified.
The disclosures stunned members of Congress. They were not allowed to discuss those details publicly during an intense debate this month on legislation sought by McConnell that granted the government significant new powers to eavesdrop on e-mails and phone calls that pass into or through data networks in the United States.
"I'm shocked," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice), chairwoman of an intelligence panel on the House Committee on Homeland Security. "It is stunning to me to read that he has decided to share these details with a small-town newspaper."
Harman said the numbers that McConnell disclosed regarding the number of people inside the United States who were targets of NSA's electronic eavesdropping "were so far as I knew as highly classified as any aspect of that program."
McConnell's comments came during an interview with the El Paso Times while he was in that city last week to appear at a conference on border security. His remarks also drew criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union, which has challenged the legality of the spying program and fought in court to compel the Bush administration to disclose more details about it.
"If this ostensibly sensitive information can be released now, why could it not be released two months ago, when the public and Congress desperately needed it?" asked Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's national security project. "This administration has a history of selectively releasing classified information in order to further its political goals."
A spokesman for McConnell declined to comment. As the nation's top intelligence official, McConnell has authority to declassify material and would not face any legal consequence for the disclosures.
