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UPDATE 2: Obama does not want the oversight law to be passed. Feinstein wants it before she approves of his nomination. So Obama is avoiding that. Its pretty simple. I cannot believe I am getting HR'd. Nobody read any of the articles.
I removed Obama's name from the title, so I am not directly attacking him. If you want to defend his position on intelligence oversight, please feel free.
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That means, basically, that Congress has not had the chance to change rules or tighten regulations or whatever else it wants to do. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, is intent on having President Obama sign a bill into law before she accepts his nominee for the DNI position.
Via The Atlantic, the President is planning on avoiding a confirmation battle fro the position of Director of National Intelligence and oversight from Congress or the GAO regarding the national intelligence community.
The battle over oversight has been going on for a while.
The tug-of-war over whether the Government Accountability Office should be able to investigate the intelligence agencies has put a spotlight on growing tensions between the congressional intelligence committees and the Obama administration over oversight.
Successive U.S. administrations have asserted that the GAO does not have a right to investigate the intelligence community, warning that sensitive information about national security could be compromised.
"But everyone was surprised that they (Obama administration officials) would take this position," a congressional aide said, citing Obama's campaign pledge to improve government transparency and oversight.
The President is not living up to his word? Nobody could have anticipated...
We know now that the CIA lied about briefing Pelosi.
Nevertheless, the late-evening stories provide a boost to earlier claims from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that she was drastically misled by the CIA when it was briefing members about the Bush administration's enhanced interrogation techniques. They also threaten to rip open the debate on whether Congress should revamp the process of how it is briefed on covert intelligence. The Obama White House on Wednesday said it would veto any legislative effort to change the current structure of the briefings, which limits the session to only the "Gang of Eight" lawmakers. Pelosi and her allies want to give the Intelligence Committee the authority to determine who is briefed on the critical intelligence.
Dawn Johnsen couldn't be recessed to the OLC, but Tapper can be recessed to DNI. I am sure someone can think of an excuse for this, but these intelligence agencies need to be brought back under control. There needs to be oversight and transparency.
By the way, this quote is hilarious:
During the Iran Contra affair, senators and members of Congress believed they were lied to directly by the director of the CIA. (The CIA's response was, and still is, that Congress didn't ask the right questions about the extent of the CIA's direct involvement in mining the Nicaraguan sea channels
Same as it ever was.