The White House says the program is not domestic spying, since one end of the phone call or e-mail is always outside the United States. A better term, the president said Monday, would be the “terrorist surveillance program.”

Congress holds hearings starting Feb. 6 on whether the president has exceeded his authority.

WASHINGTON -- The White House is hampering a Senate inquiry into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina by barring administration officials from answering questions and by not handing over documents, senators leading the probe said yesterday.

In some cases, staff members at the White House and other federal agencies have declined to be interviewed by congressional investigators, said the top Republican, Susan M. Collins of Maine, and the rankranking Democrat, Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut.

''We are entitled to know if someone from the Department of Homeland Security calls someone at the White House during this whole crisis period," Collins said. ''So I think the White House has gone too far in restricting basic information about who called whom on what day."

She also said that it ''is completely inappropriate" for the White House to bar agency officials from talking to the Senate committee.

- posted by Cynthia @ 10:59 AM | | | Link |