The Pentagon has been using a little-known power to get banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States, The New York Times said on its Web site on Saturday.

Citing intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the newspaper said the investigations, part of an expansion by the military into domestic intelligence gathering, also included CIA issuance of what are called national security letters to get access to financial records from U.S. companies.

The Bush administration seems determined to raise the specter of surveillance over every means of communication within the United States. Not content to monitor selected phone calls and e-mails in secret, it recently hinted that letters and packages may be opened without a search warrant too.

One of the highest-level executives at Verizon, alleged to be providing the National Security Agency with customer phone records under contract and without a warrant, has strong, decades-long ties to Central Intelligence.

“It was never the intent of the framers (of the Constitution) to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights.”

President Bush personally blocked an internal Justice Department investigation of the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance program earlier this year, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday.