Republican Senators say no to intelligence oversight
In an article entitled "Bush Allies in Congress Block Bill That Would Require Intelligence Disclosures", New York Times writer Mark Mazzetti reports on efforts by Republican Senators aligned with the Bush administration to deep six the intelligence reauthorization act. Yesterday, they moved to make sure that it never made it to the Senate floor for a vote.
Among other things, the act would require the Bush administration to reveal the locations of all the "secret" prisons the CIA runs, publically reveal intelligence agency budgets, and comply with intelligence document requests from the Congress within 30 days. But that smacks of effective congressional oversight, so a panicked White House put pressure on Senate Republicans to bring the bill to a halt. There will be more Senate debate on it today, but don't hold your breath on its passage.
And remember when we first heard about the secret CIA prisons, via Dana Priest at the Washington Post? That was November 2, 2005. Here we are, almost a year and a half later, and we still don't know how many prisons there were/are, what went on at those prisons, and whether or not there are still any detainees in custody at those prisons. Let the sun shine, Mr. President.
