Report faults wiretap program

WASHINGTON, July 10 (UPI) -- Only three U.S. Justice Department lawyers were briefed initially on the Bush administration's warrantless wiretapping, a report released Friday said.

The summary prepared for Congress by five inspectors general described the way the program was handled as "extraordinary and inappropriate," The Washington Post reported. President George W. Bush authorized the warrantless wiretaps soon after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

John Ashcroft, the attorney general in Bush's first term, former Office of Legal Counsel lawyer John C. Yoo and James Baker, a specialist on intelligence policy, were the only Justice Department lawyers aware of the program, the report said. Jay S. Bybee, who was Yoo's boss, told investigators he was not briefed on it.

When more Justice Department employees were told about the program, several threatened to resign.

The report also said the effectiveness of the program could not be determined, The New York Times said. The inspectors general said other means of gaining information were more effective.

Though some of the intelligence gathered "had value in some counterterrorism investigations, it generally played a limited role in the FBI's overall counterterrorism efforts," the report said.