WASHINGTON - The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee says his panel will investigate whether the CIA broke the law by not telling Congress earlier about a secret program to deploy hit teams to kill individual al-Qaida members.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told the committee about the program on June 24, a day after he first learned of the program and canceled it himself.

Law requires that the House and Senate intelligence committees be kept informed of significant intelligence activities or anticipated activities. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Tex., announced the investigation in a statement Friday.