New CIA powers include domestic surveillance

A Justice Department official told Congress Wednesday that President Reagan's new executive order expanding the power of the CIA was needed to let the agency operate ''around the edges'' of previous rules.

The new order allows the CIA for the first time to engage in domestic ''spying,'' removes a previous restriction against opening US mail without a warrant, and requires joint approval of the central intelligence director and attorney general for CIA domestic spying, effectively removing a veto power the Justice Department had in the past.