(Rep. Pete Hoekstra., a Michigan Republican. AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke)

by Matthew Hay Brown

The senior Republican on the House Select Committee on Intelligence said that lawmakers felt "used" by the White House after finally getting briefed today on alleged North Korean nuclear assistance to Syria.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra warned of a "damaged" relationship that could hinder the administration's ability to get congressional approval for an agreement on the North Korea's nuclear program.

CIA Director Michael Hayden was to show video footage and photographs showing the heads of the North Korea's and Syria's nuclear programs together at a Syrian reactor, administration officials said before the closed-door session. Some have speculated that the administration's motive in sharing the information now -- it was leaked to newspapers yesterday -- is to scuttle the six-party talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear program.

Hoekstra, the ranking member on House Intel, said he had been calling for a briefing for months. "I think many people believe that we were used today by the administration because - not because they felt they had to inform Congress because it was their legal obligation to do that, but because they had other agendas in mind," the Michigan Republican said.

"Remember, it is the legal responsibility of the administration to keep Congress fully and currently informed on the issues that the administration is dealing with," Hoekstra continued. "I think we have a question as to whether the administration actually moved forward in that direction."

Dana Perino, White House press secretary, said of Hoekstra's complaint: "Obviously we would be very disappointed that he feels that way...and hope he understands our tremendous respect for members of Congress.'' Yet, she acknolwedged, that "there are tensions that exist'' between the executive and legislative branches on many matters.

She said she hoped, but could not guarantee, that further explanation by the administration today would satisfy the chairman's questions.

Hoekstra appeared alongside Democratic committee Chairman Silverio Reyes to speak with reporters after the briefing. As leaders, both had already been briefed. But they said the full panel should have been looped in long ago.

"The challenge that we're having, particularly with the administration today," Reyes said, "is that there's a veil of secrecy that gets in the way of the - certainly our committee feeling comfortable that we're getting the kind of information that we're supposed to have in order to carry out our oversight responsibilities and our obligations to make sure that the funding is provided to keep our country safe."

Hayden is briefing the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign relations committees today, months after Israel bombed the site of the alleged reactor. Damascus condemned that September 2007 attack; Syria's ambassador to Washington has denied the administration's allegations.

"If they show a video, remember that the U.S. went to the U.N. Security Council and displayed evidence and images about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha told The Washington Post. "I hope the American people will not be as gullible this time around."

Hoekstra said the briefing came "eight months later than what is should have been."
"I really believe on an issue that is this critical to the issue of proliferation, to the situation in the Middle East, to what's going on in the six-party talks, and these types of things, Congress needed this information to be a full partner in those efforts," he said. "So what's the end result? I think what we saw in the committee today, I think the chairman would agree that the relationship that we need to get international issues done, foreign policy issues done, a trusting environment between the administration and Congress, does not exist."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a former member of the intelligence committee, also questioned the timing of the briefings. House Republican Leader John A. Boehner defended the White House.

"I think the administration took the appropriate actions that they were required to do at the time that they were required to do it," he told reporters.

But Hoekstra warned of detoriorating relations between the White House and lawmakers.

"By waiting so long to brief the Intelligence Committee and other committees on the Hill, the administration has made it much more difficult that if they do reach some kind of an agreement with the six-party talks, if they reach some other kinds of agreements, it will be much harder for them to go through the Congress and get these agreements approved because they have really damaged the relationship between Congress and the administration," he said. "And that's a big disappointment, but I think that's something that we heard consistently from all of our members today."

Mark Silva of the Chicago Tribune contributed to this report from the White House. Matthew Hay Brown covers Congress for the Baltimore Sun.