Thursday, January 25, 2007

Cheney Prevents Intelligence Oversight

Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has recently revealed that President Cheney exerted a great deal of force on the Senate Intelligence Committee in order to delay their report on bad Iraqi intelligence:
Vice President Dick Cheney exerted "constant" pressure on the Republican former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee to stall an investigation into the Bush administration's use of flawed intelligence on Iraq, the panel's Democratic chairman charged Thursday.
...
Rockefeller said that it was "not hearsay" that Cheney, a leading proponent of invading Iraq, pushed Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., to drag out the probe of the administration's use of prewar intelligence.

"It was just constant," Rockefeller said of Cheney's alleged interference. He added that he knew that the vice president attended regular policy meetings in which he conveyed White House directions to Republican staffers.

Republicans "just had to go along with the administration," he said.

If only we had a governmental system that provided for a system of constant...I don't know...maybe...checks and balances. I'm just spit ballin' here, but it would seem pretty great if there was a way for one branch of government to watch the other. It might prevent abuse of power and over-reaching by one branch.

No comments: