22 June 2006

Declassification and the Public Interest

Just when you thought the US Intelligence Community was starting to settle down after the abrupt departure of Porter Goss from CIA, things continue to bubble through the long strange summer . . . Goodness knows there is enough to worry about  . . . Oversight of intelligence and Executive Branch policy is a key issues after the revelations about NSA involvement in domestic communications monitoring . . . Democrats think the issue never got a fair discussion . . . Meanwhile, Executive branch agents have been prowling the National Archives , reclassifying documents that were previously released to the public . . . The President's Men say the reclassification is for national security reasons . . . some of it is doubtless true, but there is real concern about who is deciding what, and when the public can see the papers generated by their employees . . . IC insiders are saying the relationship between Congress and the Agencies is in shambles . . . unless new Director Mike Hayden pulls a rabbit from the hat at CIA , that one may not be fixable . . . Keith Alexander at NSA has managed to duck most of the criticism about the surveillance program, pinning the rose on previous occupants of the executive suite, and long-time Deputy Bill Black is headed for the cushy liaison job in the UK . . . A report issued by the Center for American Progress claims the breakdown between the Agencies and Congress can be fixed, if the problem is recognized . . . “ Relations have dramatically declined over the past two years, and that Congress has failed in their mission both to ensure that the IC has the tools that it needs to fight terrorism threats at home and abroad ” . . . most importantly, the tools need to be consistent with the law and the Constitution . . . All is not lost, though, since “current problems do not require a drastic restructuring” . . . That is a relief , since the Community has been restructured within an inch of its life . . . “ Congress has the tools it needs, ” says the report, “including the ability to conduct invenstigations into programs and staff, and the power to conduct oversight hearings . . . it just isn't using them” . . . The latest good idea is the Congressionally-established Presidential Intelligence Declassification Board (PIDB) which is intended to “ fullest possible public access to a thorough, accurate, and reliable documentary record of significant U.S. national security decisions and activities ” . . . Britt Snider has some ideas about that and may be in a position to use them as he was named by President Bush to Chair the new body . . . Britt was SSCI counsel and special counsel to DCI GeorgeTenet . . . his take is that the oversight system “worked before because it operated on a bipartisan basis. I don't view this as a political problem - it's a good government problem " . . . Charlie Battaglia was a senior SSCI staffer when the Vulture prowled those august halls . . . he is also a retired Naval Officer and Stansfield Turner aide at CIA, he commented that Congressional oversight "never had a golden age. There was always some degree of partisanship, but now there's a great deal. Before, the bosses were getting along, and all cooperated well" . . . Jim Bush , retired USAF Colonel and one of the founding staffers of the HPSCI used to regale the Vulture with tales of what that committee was like under the iron hand of Chairman Ed Boland (D-MA) , remembered now for the Boland Amendment that hamstrung President Reagan in the days of Iran-Contra , when Congress fiercely challenged the powers of the Executive Branch . . . it  even seemed ascendant, though we should remember it was a Democratic Party majority in House and Senate . . . Stepping forward to help Britt in his new mission on PIDB is Retired Admiral Bill Studeman , appointed by House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) to the PIDB . . . he joins a stellar cast on the panel that includes Marty Faga, Steven Garfinkel, Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, Richard Norton Smith, David Skaggs and Joan Vail Grimson . . . Studeman is on record as saying leaks must be squashed while protecting constitutional rights . . . he has had a hand in much of the recent IC restructuring, being a prime mover in the President's Weapons of Mass Destruction panel that tasked DNI John Negroponte with sixty-odd specific "fixes" to the intelligence community . . . .Should Brit desire to push things, the Board could drive high-impact recommendations for standards, networks, access and security . . .  Alternatively, it could be another in the long series of Blue Ribbon Panels . . . Too soon to tell if the body will have teeth . . .but they have the horsepower to accomplish something if there is the will to do so . . . Studeman is the second of three intelligence specialists ever to have achieved four star rank- Bobby Ray Inman was the first and Mike Hayden the third . . . He is currently a senior VP with one of the larger defense integration concerns that ring the city . . . More as it happens; the first pulbic meeting of the panel is today at the Archives . . . let's hope it is not the last . . .

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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