About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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So. Hostility warranted? Yes/no?
Sure, as long as we stop with this rogue agency bs. The President had a great opportunity to reform the CIA. He chose not to and is actively assisting with the CIA’s attempts to evade any accountability. Let’s see if Congress still has any respect for itself as an institution.
I think the characterization “rogue agency” depends strongly on the kind of threats said agency has issued to those who have the power to rein it in.
I am shocked, shocked to find out that the CIA may be spying on anything that moves, including the POTUS.
Lying to Congress and now this. Next they’ll be giving LSD to people in the subways.
What was that song by War?
“I know you’re workin’ for the CIA
They wouldn’t have you in the Ma-fi-a”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRGd0gD0QNE
Now going back to my comment about disbanding almost every agency in the IC…
After 67 years, it is time to take down the intelligence community that has the unlimited power of state secrets and start over with a more limited mandate. And after a hundred years, it is time to do the same to the highly politicized FBI.
Are there any members of Congress who still believe in Constitutional government enough to take big risks. Are there any Mike Gravel’s left in Congress?
It seems that oversight extends to destroying regulations that keep corporations from ripping off customers or polluting the environment.
Or it’s time to confess that democracy was a nice idea but it’s more comforting to know that everyone is being watched and anyone can be subject to torture at any time.
How many more betrayals are going to be just shrugged off?
Are there any Mike Gravel’s left? No. It’s why I supported him in 2008. Oh and was subsequently laughed at.
Is it wrong that I’m laughing?
Sen. Feinstein is probably pissed that it was made public and confirms that she’s one of the Senate empty suits.
More giggles:
So, Senate staffers working on a committee investigating potentially illegal CIA activities “copied” CIA materials that they were allowed to view and stuck those materials into a database used by the investigation committee. Expect the WH/CIA to simplify this down to Senate staff thieves (traitors?) forced the CIA to hack into the thieves’ computers to find out what they had stolen. Could Senators be labeled criminal accomplices ala Greenwald, Poitras if that don’t STFU?
Senator Saxby Chamless is pissed that it was leaked (and he’s the ranking member of the committee). Most of the GOP are lying low. Graham postulates that it is not true but if it is it is WWIII between CIA and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
The actual situation is not as straight-forward as it seems. Read the McClatchy article for the details. Senate staffers were required to go to CIA to see documents in a specially fitted-out room. One of the documents they came across was an internal CIA report that contradicted the CIA’s official response (CIA was lying to Congress and internal report was the smoking gun). CIA argued that Senate staffers were not authorized to see the internal CIA report. Senate staffers wondered how CIA knew they had accessed the report and initiated investigation of CIA surveillance on them with CIA IG. Justice seemed to be dragging its feet. So someone leaked to McClatchy.
Disagree — it’s relatively straightforward. Forget the CIA lying to Congress bit — that’s what Senators and House Reps do except when it’s necessary for them to also lie and obfuscate to cover CIA lying. (They do the same for the FBI, NSA and Pentagon on a bipartisan basis. It’s partisan lying and covering for All the other executive departments.)
This is why Congress is supposed to exercise (not just pay lip service to) oversight. I’m about halfway through Seth Rosenfeld’s book “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power.” All that ancient history stuff from 50 years ago keeps intruding on us today (and is itself rooted in activities going back 75-100 years before that).
I don’t think complete dismantlement of our intelligence apparatus is the answer (if it could even be done), but we for sure need to have a better handle on what’s going on inside those dark, secret areas. And if there has been illegality going on, the malefactors need to be identified, tried in open court, and if found guilty sent to prison. They’re not providing a service to the United States, despite their protestations to the contrary. Questionable activities of dubious legality need to be reined in, and laws and rules written to put some teeth to it.
It’s well past time we stopped ruining people’s careers and lives under the dubious pretext of national security.