Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) isn’t pleased:
I have learned of some alleged Intelligence Community activities about which our committee has not been briefed. In the next few days I will be formally requesting information on these activities. If these allegations are true, they may represent a breach of responsibility by the Administration, a violation of law, and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the Members this committee.
Hoekstra’s the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, and it’s pretty clear that the potentially illegal “activities” he mentions here are separate from the stuff we already know about—domestic wiretapping and the like. So the grand-prize question is this: Will Hoekstra actually try to do anything about the program in question? Try to shut it down? Stand up to the Bush administration? Or is he just expressing a bit of nominal concern now—via a letter conveniently leaked to the Times—so that he doesn’t look too bad when these “activities” finally come to light? Hard to say. Here’s some speculation on what sorts of programs might have Hoekstra so upset.
