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| Intel: Can't Keep A Secret |
| 2007-04-13 |
| Can't Keep A Secret By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, April 13, 2007 4:20 PM PT Intelligence: Congress is determined to apply "open government" principles to spying. Most Americans know espionage and secrecy are vital tools in the global war on terror and will reject this political power grab. The White House has indicated that President Bush will veto the intelligence authorization bill set for Senate floor debate this week and backed by both the Senate Intelligence Committee's Democratic chairman, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, and the panel's Republican vice chairman, Kit Bond of Missouri. No wonder. Included in its provisions are an array of congressional intrusions that would spill the beans about our espionage activities to our terrorist enemies, and force intelligence agencies to waste valuable time catering to the politically motivated whims of nosy senators and congressmen: • Spy agencies would be required to provide within 15 days "any intelligence assessment, report, estimate, legal opinion, or other intelligence information" requested by a congressional intelligence committee, the chairman or vice chairman of those panels, or "any other congressional committee of jurisdiction." The administration could only refuse such requests by declaring an executive prerogative. The White House rightly charges that this "would foster political gamesmanship and elevate routine disagreements to the level of constitutional crises," plus force intelligence agencies "to direct resources from critical missions to comply with broad information requests within an artificial deadline." • The required notification to Congress of intelligence information would be extended to all members of the Senate and House intelligence committees, not just to their Democratic chairmen and Republican vice chairman and ranking members, as is now the case. (This means Rep. Alcee Hastings, the Florida Democrat, impeached and ousted as a federal judge by Congress for perjury regarding a $150,000 bribe in a racketeering case, would be receiving ultrasensitive intelligence briefings.) When spy agencies refuse to give notification because special protection of secrets is needed, they would have to give every committee member a classified statement of the reasons for the decision and the "main features" of the intelligence activity in question. As the White House points out, "these reporting requirements themselves may require broader dissemination of the very facts that require limited access." • The director of national intelligence would be required to provide Congress with detailed reports on current and former secret prisons for terrorists. Terrorist interrogation is better left to "the normal course between the intelligence committees and the executive branch," the White House maintains. • Congress would establish a new inspector general office over all intelligence agencies of the U.S. government — including departments and agencies that already have an inspector general. • Every year, the president would be required to disclose the total funding request for intelligence activities. The White House responded by stating the obvious fact that "disclosure of changes in funding totals over time could compromise intelligence sources, methods, and activities." Democrats such as Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan have been trying to impose this kind of congressional micromanagement of spying for years. But they always seem to use information about intelligence decisions for political purposes during wartime. Earlier this month, Levin was hitting the Bush administration over the head with a declassified Pentagon report on pre-Iraq War intelligence. Unfortunately, Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence panel, is little better, insisting that Congress, under Democratic control, "reassert our oversight" — instead of making sure it stays out of the executive branch's way as it tries to use espionage as a weapon against terrorists. Former CIA Director Porter Goss found it impossible to reform "the agency" away from its bad bureaucratic habits and steer it toward being a more effective force in this new kind of war. How much harder would it be to spy on terrorists with a bunch of politics-minded congressmen and senators looking over our intelligence community's shoulder? |
| Posted by:Captain America |
| #5 CW II comes another step closer. |
| Posted by: SR-71 2007-04-13 22:36 |
| #4 Sounds like a fine idea to me... |
| Posted by: The Ghost of Frank Church 2007-04-13 22:21 |
| #3 I smell Leahy |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-04-13 22:04 |
| #2 Aren't the spy agencies part of the executive branch of government. Tell them to FOAD already. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2007-04-13 21:37 |
| #1 This is what happens when a Fifth Column becomes a majority. |
| Posted by: RWV 2007-04-13 21:28 |