Senator Patrick Leahy, who is chairman of the committee, aimed his criticism largely at the administration's unwillingness to consult with Congress on several of its initiatives including the military tribunals, the order allowing authorities to monitor conversations between some terrorist suspects in jail and their lawyers and the planned questioning of some 5,000 men, mostly from the Middle East, now living in the US.
"The division of power and the checks and balances built into our system help sustain and earn the public's confidence in the actions taken by the government," Leahy said, pleading for a more active role for Congress. He said that it was always difficult to raise questions about the behavior of the executive branch in wartime.
"But whether the administration's recent actions are popular or unpopular at the moment -- well, that's not the issue."
Leahy said Congressional oversight was not "as some have mistakenly described it, to protect terrorists."
"It is to protect ourselves as Americans and protect our American freedoms."
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the committee, said in response that there was sometimes too much Congressional oversight. He dismissed complaints that the Congress had not been consulted, saying: "It's not that we don't have a solemn obligation to assess the department's actions to ensure that they are both effective and sufficiently protective of our civil liberties, but do any members of this committee really believe that in this time of crisis, the American people, those who live outside the capital beltway, really care whether the president, the secretary of defense or the attorney general took the time to pick up the telephone and call us, prior to implementing these emergency measures?"
Leahy said that some of the concerns about the military tribunal order had been allayed by comments over the last several days by administration officials who suggested it would be used more narrowly that its scope would allow.
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