Congress Chided for Leaks

President Bush testily lectured the Congress Tuesday on the need to protect the secrecy of classified information after members of the House and Senate objected to a presidential order limiting what they may be told about military operations and law enforcement.

Two days after the opening of the military campaign against terrorist camps in Afghanistan, the White House and Capitol Hill found themselves in sharp disagreement. Bush could barely contain his anger, and his spokesman said that the rules governing White House-congressional relations had changed because “in a time of war, the usual rules do not apply.”

“I want Congress to hear loud and clear,” the president said. “It is unacceptable behavior to leak classified information when we have troops at risk.”

Experts on the history of White House efforts to restrict dissemination of national security information said Bush’s efforts go beyond any previous formal attempt to limit what Congress will be told about military and intelligence operations.

Bush’s plan would let eight, specified senior members of Congress receive certain classified briefings. They would be forbidden to pass along any reports to other members, including those responsible for overseeing the work of the Pentagon, State Department and law enforcement.

“I understand there may be some heartburn on Capitol Hill,” Bush said to reporters on the edge of the White House Rose Garden after a meeting with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. “But I suggest if they want to relieve that heartburn, that they take their positions very seriously, and that they take any information they’ve been given by our government very seriously.”

Republicans and Democrats in Congress used temperate language Tuesday, but even as they expressed understanding of Bush’s concerns, they said Congress had a right to the information and a responsibility to protect secrets.

Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee and a former secretary of the Navy, said he did not need to know specific information about troop movements, but “certain areas of classified information, we have to have.”

“Congress is a co-equal branch of government,” he said. He and other senior members of the Armed Services committees, the International Relations committees, Judiciary committees and Appropriations committees would all be denied information, under Bush’s plan.

But the degree to which the administration will adhere to the plan was uncertain. Warner said he and five others members of Congress were given an extensive briefing by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Monday.

“As far as I know, none of us went out and talked about anything,” he said, “this thing, I think, is being reworked.”

Bush’s order was written Friday. It was disclosed Monday. It went to the secretaries of State, Treasury and Defense, the attorney general, and the directors of the FBI and CIA.

It said that only they--or those they designate--may brief members of Congress on classified or sensitive law enforcement information, and that only the top Congressional officials--the House speaker, House minority leader, and majority and minority leaders of the Senate, along with the chair and ranking minority members of the House and Senate intelligence committees--may receive the briefings.

“This approach will best serve our shared goals of protecting American lives, maintaining the proper level of confidentiality for the success of our military, intelligence and law enforcement operations, and keeping the leadership of the Congress appropriately informed about important developments,” Bush wrote in the memorandum.

The memo was prompted by a Washington Post report that morning that U.S. intelligence officials had told members of Congress that there was a high probability of a new major terrorist attack on U.S. targets, either in this country or abroad, by associates of Osama bin Laden, and one said such a strike was 100% likely if the United States launched raids on Afghanistan.

The White House believes the leak came from a CIA briefing to the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said a classified briefing his panel had tentatively scheduled for Thursday with defense officials had been put on hold while guidelines for information-sharing are worked out.

Levin acknowledged the need to keep military operational matters secret. But, he said, his committee also needs other classified information to do its work.

And while senators in both parties said Bush was justified to be angry, even such allies as Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) said, “Congress has the right to know.”

Sen. Larry E. Craig (R-Idaho), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that if the administration requested emergency funding on national security grounds, “I’m going to want to go behind closed doors and say, ‘show me.’ It’s a right and reasonable question to ask.”

Bush’s aides did not try to minimize his anger, and one said, “Obviously, he’s upset about it.”

It was one of the topics he raised at a meeting Tuesday afternoon with the Senate and Republican leaders of the Senate and House foreign relations panels, and was likely to be on the agenda this morning when Bush meets with the four top-ranking members of the House and Senate.

Indeed, the president said he had called at least one member of the leadership Friday, after the Post story appeared, and said, “This can’t stand.”

Justifying his decision, the president said: “We’re now in extraordinary times. When those leaks occurred . . . it was right before we committed troops.”

White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said the matter was “not a question of people not being trusted,” but instead “a question of the determination made by the president that in a time of war, the usual rules do not apply.”

“We’re at war, and the price of error is now too high,” he said.

David Vladeck, a lawyer with Public Citizen, a public advocacy group, said Bush was taking “a calculated risk” that, under the pressure of the war, Congress will avoid a head-to-head clash with the White House.

“They’re going to be asked to assist in prosecuting a war on the basis of information that is far from complete,” he said.

While the White House could argue that it is recognizing Congress’ constitutional roles by keeping eight members informed, the White House has no right to decide what the members of Congress can do with the information, said Morton Halperin, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“They can’t tell Congress what to do,” he said.

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Who’s In the Loop

The eight congressional leaders the administration plans to brief regularly during the conflict:

Sen Tom Daschle: Majority Leader

Sen. Trent Lott: Minority Leader

Sen. Richard Shelby: Intelligence Committee

Sen. Bob Graham: Intelligence Committee

Rep. J. Dennise Hastert: Speaker of the House Rep. Richard A. Gephardt: Minority Leader

Rep. Porter J. (CAN’T READ THE NAME): Intelligence Committee

Rep. Nancy Peloni: Minority Leader

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Who’s Out of the Loop

Other senior members of Congress whose positions in past conflicts would have gotten them briefings:

Senate Committees

Armed Services

Carl Levine (D-Mich.)

John W. Warner (R. Va.)

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Foreign Relations

Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.)

Jesse Helms (R-N.C.)

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Judiciary

Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.)

Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah)

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Appropriations

Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.)

Ted Stephens (R-Alaska)

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House Committees

Armed Services

Bob Stump: (R-Ariz.)

Ike Skelton (D-Mo.)

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International Relations

Henry J. Hyde (R--Ill.)

Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo)

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Judiciary

F. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.)

John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.)

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Appropriations

C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.)

David R. Obey (D-Wis.)

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Times staff writers Nick Anderson, Janet Hook, Greg Miller and Richard Simon contributed to this report.