Republicans On Senate Intelligence Committee Join Cover-up

Haven't these Senators learned the old Washington maxim: "It's not the crime, it's the cover-up"?

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence voted along party lines yesterday to reject a Democratic proposal to investigate the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program and instead approved establishing, with White House approval, a seven-member panel to oversee the effort.

Chairman Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) told reporters after the closed session that he had asked the committee "to reject confrontation in favor of accommodation" and that the new subcommittee, which he described as "an accommodation with the White House," would "conduct oversight of the terrorist surveillance program."...

The panel's vice chairman, Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), (said about) yesterday's outcome. "The committee is, to put it bluntly, basically under the control of the White House through its chairman," he told reporters. "At the direction of the White House, the Republican majority has voted down my motion to have a careful and fact-based review of the National Security Agency's surveillance eavesdropping activities inside the United States."...

Also yesterday, legislation sponsored by Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), a member of the intelligence committee ... would permit warrantless surveillance of calls between the United States and another country involving "a designated terrorist organization" for 45 days, after which the government can stop the eavesdropping, seek a warrant, or explain to Congress why it wants to continue without a warrant.

The bill would also create a subcommittee that would carry out monitoring of all aspects of the program, "on a case-by-case" basis, DeWine told reporters. Roberts told reporters that DeWine had consulted with him and the White House and "in concept it is a very good proposal." At the White House, press secretary Scott McClellan described the DeWine proposal as interesting but reiterated the position that Bush already has the power to institute the program.

The language calling for "a subcommittee that would carry out monitoring of all aspects of the program, "on a case-by-case" basis" will not be found in the final bill, if it gets enacted.

This is because the Intelligence Community won't stand for it. They already have major problems with the statutory requirement to notify the Intelligence Committees of the existence of every Covert Action undertaken by the CIA.

The Senate Judiciary Committee looks, as of now, to be the final place that the administration may be called to account over the extra-legal warrantless NSA eavesdropping program.

The NSA issue was brought up at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, who is drafting his own bill. Specter warned that he will try to reduce the administration's funding unless Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales agrees to answer more of his committee's questions.

"We're having quite a time in getting responses to questions as to what has happened with the electronic surveillance program," Specter said. "I want to put the administration on notice and this committee on notice that I may be looking for an amendment to limit funding as to the electronic surveillance program -- which is the power of the purse -- if we can't get an answer in any other way."

It is really bad when the final hope of the American citizens to reach the truth about an important matter rests upon the actions of Sen. Arlen "Magic Bullet" Specter.