In an unusual rebuke, Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the senior Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, complained Wednesday the spy project is "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful and dangerous to the national security." He called the program "stunningly expensive."
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 of Representatives and Senate that provides for future U.S. intelligence activities.
The compromise noted the four senators believe the mystery program is unnecessary and its cost unjustified and "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."
Each senator - and more than two-dozen current and former U.S. officials - 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.
The measure, which authorizes spending for intelligence activities for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, is separate from the intelligence-overhaul legislation that received final congressional approval Wednesday.
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