Officials: US missed intelligence, thanks Dems!

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US justice and spy departments said Saturday the failure of the Democratic-led House of Representatives to renew a wiretap law had cost the loss of intelligence information.

The Department of Justice and the office of the Director of National Intelligence said telecommunication firms had hesitated to cooperate with authorities because of uncertainty since the law elapsed a week ago.

The companies eventually agreed to continue their cooperation after talks with government officials, the Department of Justice and office of Director of National Intelligence said in a joint statement.

"We appreciate the willingness of our private partners to cooperate despite the uncertainty," the statement said.

"Unfortunately, the delay resulting from this discussion impaired our ability to cover foreign intelligence targets, which resulted in missed intelligence information," it said.

"In addition, although our private partners are cooperating for the time being, they have expressed understandable misgivings about doing so, in light of the on-going uncertainty, and have indicated that they may well discontinue cooperation if the uncertainty persists."

The House let the law expire on February 16 after it refused to rubber stamp a Senate bill that would give telecommunication companies immunity from lawsuits.