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Intel IG rebuffs Hill on surveillance probe

The inspector general who oversees the sprawling U.S. intelligence community said he lacks the resources to conduct a review of NSA's surveillance authorities, rebuffing a request from a bipartisan group of senators seeking answers about the the agency's work.

Led by Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), 10 lawmakers in September had urged the watchdog, I. Charles McCullough III, to investigate the NSA’s programs to collect phone call logs and Internet data and publish its findings by the end of next year — but McCullough, replying Tuesday, said such a review just isn’t possible.

“At present, we are not resourced to conduct the requested review within the requested timeframe,” wrote McCullough, before adding he and other agency inspectors general are weighing now whether they can combine forces on a larger probe.

That response didn’t sit well with Leahy, who raised the letter during a scathing speech on the Senate floor Wednesday that slammed the intelligence community for a “trust deficit.” Leahy also emphasized his belief that “the American people are rightly concerned that their private information could be swept up into a massive database, and then compromised.”

Members of Congress and other watchdogs already are surveying federal surveillance authorities in the wake of Edward Snowden’s leaks. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, for example, is taking a close look at such programs, while the Obama administration’s own special review group is examining classified data collection practices.

Leahy had hoped to get the intelligence community’s IG involved as well.

“[O]nly your office can bring to bear an IC-wide perspective that is critical to effective oversight of these programs,” he wrote in the September letter, noting previous IG-level reviews had been too “narrowly focused.” The missive had the support of the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, and eight other lawmakers from both parties.

“We have urged appropriate oversight of these activities long before the problems with the implementation of these FISA authorities became public,” the senators continued, asking for all reports by Dec. 31, 2014. “We believe it is important for your office to begin this review without further delay.

More than a month later, though, the IG said it couldn’t fulfill the Senate’s request. While pointing out his office does have jurisdiction, McCullough cited resource concerns and stressed the requested inquiry would “implicate existing oversight efforts,” which he didn’t further describe.

But McCullough also raised the possibility that his office could combine forces with the federal government’s other inspectors general to open a formal probe. “As my IG colleagues and I confer regarding the possibility of conducting a joint review of the requested topic, I will keep you and the committee staff informed,” he wrote.

The IG’s response arrived in the midst a brewing congressional debate over the future of the NSA. Leahy has introduced legislation along with Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) that would significantly curtail the agency’s authorities. Leahy announced during his speech that his committee would hold another hearing on NSA surveillance on Nov. 20.