By Patricia Wilson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House complained on Thursday that a House-Senate probe into the Sept. 11 attacks released sensitive information about secret intercepts with the potential to undermine U.S. national security.

Photos Reuters Photo

"The president has deep concerns about the inappropriate disclosure of information that can compromise both sources and methods and potentially interfere or harm America's capacity to fight the war against terror," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites) said.

Government sources said on Wednesday that the day before hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon ( news - web sites) near Washington, the National Security Agency intercepted two messages indicating an event was planned the following day, but the communications were not translated until Sept. 12.

The agency, which eavesdrops on communications worldwide, intercepted messages that said, "Tomorrow is zero hour" and "The match begins tomorrow," the sources said.

Fleischer said President Bush ( news - web sites) directed Vice President Dick Cheney ( news - web sites) to express administration concerns about the leak of the information to the co-chairmen of the House-Senate intelligence committee, Republican Rep. Porter Goss and Democratic Sen. Bob Graham.

The disclosure of the Sept. 10 messages was inappropriate "because it involves risk to our national security that can harm America's ongoing ability to fight and win a war," Fleischer told reporters.

He cited a 1998 leak of NSA information about the agency's ability to listen to Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites), the Saudi-born militant blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks, on his satellite phone.

As a result, bin Laden stopped using it, Fleischer said, and the United States "was denied the opportunity to monitor and gain information that could have been very valuable for protecting our country."

'EXTRAORDINARILY SENSITIVE'

"Information that is being provided to these committees is extraordinarily sensitive," Fleischer said. "The selective, inappropriate leaking of snippets of information risks undermining national security and risks undermining the promises made to protect the sensitive information."

The Bush White House is renowned for its discipline, and the president has reacted angrily in the past when information has leaked from Capitol Hill.

He publicly rebuked members of Congress last October for leaking sensitive information about the U.S. response to the Sept. 11 attacks, saying, "This can't stand."

"We can't have leaks of classified information. It's not in our nation's interest. We're now in extraordinary times," Bush said at a Rose Garden news conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

In response, he tried to limit briefings to eight leading members of Congress, but relented a few days later after members of the House and Senate foreign relations and armed services committees objected strongly, saying Bush was abusing their traditional oversight role.

After the vice president's telephone conversation with Goss and Graham, Fleischer said both Cheney and Bush were confident the committee chairmen would address the issue.

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