charrob
01-23-2015, 12:26 AM
The new Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee has asked (http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/22/headlines/new_senate_intel_committee_chair_seeks_return_of_c ia_torture_report)the Obama administration to return all copies of the Senate’s landmark report on CIA torture. Sen. Richard Burr has also indicated he will return a secret CIA internal report, known as the Panetta Review, which found the agency inflated the importance of information gained through torture.
The Wrong Senator to Oversee the CIA (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/the-cias-most-important-overseer-is-abdicating-his-responsibilities/384727/#disqus_thread)
Richard Burr now leads the intelligence committee, but he seems more interested in protecting the agency than holding it accountable.
Senator Richard Burr is acting like a man who doesn't understand the role or duties that he now has. With the Republican Party assuming control of Congress, the North Carolinian is chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, the body charged with overseeing the CIA. His responsibilities are momentous. All senators are called to act as power-jealous checks on the executive branch. And the particular mission of the Senate intelligence committee, created in the wake of horrific CIA abuses, obligates Burr to “provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States" and "to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws.”
But as Senator Burr begins this job, he is behaving less like an overseer than a CIA asset. Rather than probe problems at the spy agency, of which there have been many, his first priority has been aiding CIA efforts to cover up past misdeeds. It is hard to imagine a more flagrantly inappropriate act by a head overseer.
The Wrong Senator to Oversee the CIA (http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/01/the-cias-most-important-overseer-is-abdicating-his-responsibilities/384727/#disqus_thread)
Richard Burr now leads the intelligence committee, but he seems more interested in protecting the agency than holding it accountable.
Senator Richard Burr is acting like a man who doesn't understand the role or duties that he now has. With the Republican Party assuming control of Congress, the North Carolinian is chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, the body charged with overseeing the CIA. His responsibilities are momentous. All senators are called to act as power-jealous checks on the executive branch. And the particular mission of the Senate intelligence committee, created in the wake of horrific CIA abuses, obligates Burr to “provide vigilant legislative oversight over the intelligence activities of the United States" and "to assure that such activities are in conformity with the Constitution and laws.”
But as Senator Burr begins this job, he is behaving less like an overseer than a CIA asset. Rather than probe problems at the spy agency, of which there have been many, his first priority has been aiding CIA efforts to cover up past misdeeds. It is hard to imagine a more flagrantly inappropriate act by a head overseer.