- (AP) -- Congress' new blueprint for U.S. intelligence
spending includes a mysterious and expensive spy program that drew extraordinary
criticism from leading Democrats, with one saying the highly classified
project is a threat to national security.
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- In an unusual rebuke, Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia,
the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, complained Wednesday
that the spy project was "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful
and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly
expensive."
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- Rockefeller and three other Democratic senators _ Richard
Durbin of Illinois, Carl Levin of Michigan and Ron Wyden of Oregon _ refused
to sign the congressional compromise negotiated by others in the House
and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities.
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- The compromise noted that the four senators believed
the mystery program was unnecessary and its cost unjustified and that "they
believe that the funds for this item should be expended on other intelligence
programs that will make a surer and greater contribution to national security."
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- Each senator _ and more than two dozen current and former
U.S. officials contacted by The Associated Press _ declined to further
describe or identify the disputed program, citing its classified nature.
Thirteen other senators on the Intelligence Committee and all their counterparts
in the House approved the compromise.
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- Despite objections from some in the Senate, Congress
has approved the program for the last two years, Rockefeller said.
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- The Senate voted Wednesday night to send the legislation
to President Bush. The bill is separate from the intelligence overhaul
legislation that also won final congressional approval Wednesday.
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- The rare criticisms of a highly secretive project in
such a public forum intrigued outside intelligence experts, who said the
program was almost certainly a spy satellite system, perhaps with technology
to destroy potential attackers. They cited tantalizing hints in Rockefeller's
remarks, such as the program's enormous expense and its alleged danger
to national security.
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- A U.S. panel in 2001 described American defense and spy
satellites as frighteningly vulnerable, saying technology to launch attacks
in space was widely available internationally. The study, by a commission
whose members included Donald H. Rumsfeld prior to his appointment as defense
secretary for President Bush, concluded that the United States was "an
attractive candidate for a Space Pearl Harbor."
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- Sending even defensive satellite weapons into orbit could
start an arms race in space, warned John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org,
who has studied anti-satellite weapons for more than three decades. Pike
said other countries would inevitably demand proof that any weapons were
only defensive.
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- "It would present just absolutely insurmountable
verification problems because we are not going to let anybody look at our
spy satellites," Pike said. "It is just not going to happen."
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- Rockefeller's description of the spy project as a "major
funding acquisition program" suggests a price tag in the range of
billions of dollars, intelligence experts said. But even expensive imagery
or eavesdropping satellites _ so long as they're unarmed _ are rarely criticized
as a danger to U.S. security, they noted.
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- "From the price, it's almost certainly a satellite
program," said James Bamford, author of two books about the National
Security Agency. "In the intelligence community, it's so hard to get
a handle on what's going on, particularly with the satellite programs."
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- Another expert agreed. "It's hard to think of most
any satellite program, at least the standard ones, as dangerous to national
security," said Jeffrey T. Richelson, who wrote a highly regarded
book about CIA technology in 2001.
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- Associated Press writer Katherine Pfleger Shrader contributed
to this report.
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