Those agencies follow a defined oversight chain, detailing who in the executive branch can approve intelligence operations and who in the legislature must be informed about them.
Ms. Feinstein last month suggested setting up a new court, modeled after the one that approves intelligence-gathering wiretaps, for targeted killings.
—Brooke There has been a good deal of talk in recent months about the possibility of judicial review before drone strikes, something along the lines of the Foreign International Surveillance Court, which approved Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants.
This week the House approved an intelligence authorization bill that calls for the establishment of an interagency committee within the executive branch to counter "active measures by the Russian Federation to exert covert influence" in other countries, including the United States.
A8 NATIONAL A18-28 House Votes to Approve Intelligence Overhaul Bill The House voted overwhelmingly to approve the sweeping intelligence overhaul bill sought by President Bush and the independent Sept. 11 commission, rejecting a final appeal by a group of influential House Republicans who last month came close to derailing the measure.
Dean said Colson pressured the president's reelection committee to approve the "intelligence activities" of G. Gordon Liddy and Howard Hunt, leaders of the so-called White House plumbers.
Mr. Clapper, the director of national intelligence, approved the release of an unusual public statement on Sept. 28 about the evolving intelligence conclusions.
The report, approved by 16 intelligence agencies, concluded that a previously steep escalation in violence had been checked.
The January 2003 assessments were not formal National Intelligence Estimates, however, which means they were probably not formally approved by the intelligence chiefs.
Allen W. Dulles, the director of central intelligence, approved $1 million on April 4 to be used "in any way that would bring about the fall of Mossadegh," the history says.
The attorney general's office has not responded to requests for comment about whether he has approved any special intelligence operations.
