Senators Want Details on Reported CIA Prisons

The Senate Intelligence Committee is seeking to force the Bush administration to disclose details about secret overseas prisons thought to be run by the CIA, part of a broader effort by lawmakers to compel the White House to provide more information on sensitive intelligence programs.

Legislation adopted by the committee this week would require the administration for the first time to submit reports to Congress on the treatment of terrorism suspects and the locations of the reported clandestine CIA holding cells scattered around the world.

The push for details on the secret prison sites is the latest sign of friction between Congress and the White House over access to classified information. The issue was also a focus of the confirmation process for Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden, who was confirmed by the Senate on Friday, 78 to 15, as director of the CIA.

Hayden spent much of his confirmation hearing last week defending his role in a domestic eavesdropping operation authorized by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks but kept secret from all but a few members of Congress until several months ago.

The demand for fuller disclosure on the reported CIA prisons was among several provisions in an otherwise routine spending bill adopted by the Intelligence Committee this week that would make it harder for the White House to withhold information on highly classified programs.

Another provision would require the White House to inform members of the Senate and House intelligence committees when they are being excluded from briefings on secret programs, as many of them were in the case of the domestic wiretapping operation.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who proposed that language, said in a written statement that the provision and others were designed “to send a message to the president that we will insist on the information needed to carry out our constitutional duties.”

Most Republicans on the committee opposed the disclosure provisions, but Sens. Olympia J. Snowe (R-Maine) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) sided with Democrats to approve them.

The CIA has never publicly acknowledged the existence of secret overseas prisons, but current and former intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, have said they exist.

Details of the operations and locations of the prisons are among the most closely guarded secrets in the U.S. intelligence community. Even the number of prisoners in CIA custody is known only to a handful of senior U.S. officials, though it is widely acknowledged to be in the dozens.

Any demand by Congress for access to such information is likely to be fiercely resisted by the Bush administration.

White House spokesman Ken Lisaius declined to comment on the Senate bill, but he referred to the administration’s position on a separate request from the House last month for an inventory of so-called “special access programs,” or operations so secret that information on them is compartmentalized even within the upper ranks of the intelligence community. The White House issued a statement last month saying it opposed that section of the House intelligence authorization bill.

The Senate Intelligence Committee provisions seeking information on the overseas detention sites are likely to face opposition in the full Senate. Last year, Democratic amendments making similar requests prompted Republican opposition that prevented a vote on the bill.

Responding to questions about the detention sites could be a delicate matter for Hayden, who is expected to be sworn in at the White House next week. Hayden was a leading architect of the domestic eavesdropping program in which the National Security Agency -- the spy service he previously led -- intercepted, without court warrants, phone calls and e-mails into and out of the U.S. The Bush administration has said the surveillance program targets suspected terrorist affiliates.

During Thursday night’s debate on Hayden’s nomination, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said the warrantless wiretapping program raised “serious questions about whether the general is the right person to lead the CIA, serious questions about whether the general will continue to be an administration cheerleader, serious questions about his credibility.”

Wyden was among 14 Democrats who voted against Hayden’s nomination. The only Republican to oppose the four-star general’s confirmation was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who has questioned the legality of the NSA eavesdropping program.

Feinstein voted for confirmation; California’s other senator, Democrat Barbara Boxer, did not vote.