From what has been made public, we know that the F.B.I., under the Obama administration, used its powers under the Patriot Act to seek these records; that judges with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approved these searches; and that members of Congress with oversight powers over the intelligence community were briefed about the searches.
The Intelligence and Security Committee and the National Audit Office have been briefed about the payments, but nothing will be made public, including how much each detainee has received.
Several intelligence officials, as well as lawyers briefed about the matter, said the N.S.A. had been engaged in "overcollection" of domestic communications of Americans.
The divers were briefed about the study.
The letter, recently declassified at Ms. Harman's request, was written shortly after she received a classified briefing about the intelligence agency's detention and interrogation program because she had become the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
He appears to take at face value that "no records have been identified" of ministers being briefed about intelligence delivered to loyalists.
"We only know a good deal about 19 of them," said another senior official who has been briefed on the intelligence.
Internally, some Chinese officials spoke about her in ways that suggested they had influence over her, the former senior official, who was briefed on the intelligence, said.
"This was significant because it was the big guys talking, and talking about very specific timing for an attack or attacks," said one American official who had been briefed on the intelligence reports in recent days.
In October, Obama was briefed on the intelligence.
