Sources: House Lays Groundwork for Potential CIA Probe

By GottaLaff

Drumbeat getting louder... louder...

The House Intelligence Committee asked the CIA to provide documents about the now-canceled proposal to kill Al Qaeda leaders, and agency officials said it would comply with the request, congressional officials said Tuesday. [...]

The House request for documents is likely a precursor to what would likely become a full-blown investigation into the secret operation and why the program was not disclosed to Congress. Panetta, meanwhile, has ordered a thorough internal review of the program, agency spokesman George Little said.

The House Intelligence Committee will try to establish how much was spent on the effort, whether any training was conducted and whether any officials traveled in association with the program, a committee official said. Those factors would determine whether the program had progressed enough to warrant congressional notification, the official said.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, is expected to decide as early as this week whether to press ahead with a full investigation into the CIA operation. [...]

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., said Monday that the CIA's failure to brief Congress violated the law.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, R-Mich., the senior GOP member of the committee, said he would support an investigation. But from what he knows now, Hoekstra said, he does not believe the effort merited congressional notification.