I met my wife because of the CIA. They funneled money and guns to an egomaniacal dictatorial tyrant in a malicious attempt to “democratize” Latin America by force, overriding the actual democratic voice which elected Salvador Allende, and tortured her father before inviting them to live in the United States as political exiles. But that debt to them being my own personal one, they are a danger not only to foreign governments but to our own. And the shield that President Obama is attempting to throw over them now is a sad, naked hoarding of power that frankly I’d expect from Dick Cheney. (Update – Dick Cheney ordered the CIA to lie to Congress.)
The “oversight” of national security activities which various members of Congress are responsible for is toothless at the present time because even when they find something out of line, as Speaker Pelosi did in regards to the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, they are legally bound not to tell anyone. WTF? They are overseeing in a vacuum. The CIA is not responsible to act on their recommendations, objections, or questions. The CIA doesn’t even have to tell them the truth, according to CIA Director Leon Panetta.
Tie this to the Patriot Act, which is still in force, and we have a group of independent operators doing what they think is good for the United States of America without any input from our elected (and therefore responsible to us) representatives. President Obama has threatened to veto the intelligence authorization bill if Democratic Senators attempt to put teeth into the role of oversight.
Keeping secrets is the way that the United States operated in Chile, in Nicaragua, in Iran, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and the list continues. The CIA has a director who appears honorable and at least willing to admit that his agency has lied to Congress (and the United States) in the past. Why is President Obama trying to continue this practice, keeping secrets by keeping Congress bound and gagged?
