Chairman of the Senate coverup committee, Pat Roberts
Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS): Chairman of the Senate Cover-up Committee from Think Progress
As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-KS) duty is “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 of the United States.” But on the most important intelligence issues facing Americans – such as the manipulation of Iraq intelligence, warrantless domestic spying, and torture – Roberts has transformed his committee into a “Senate Coverup Committee” for the Bush administration.
Roberts has made clear both his support for Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program and his contempt for those who question the program’s legality. On March 7, his committee once again abdicated its oversight responsibilities and “voted against an investigation of the president’s warrantless domestic spying program.” Roberts instead made a deal with the White House to “allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.” Ranking Member Jay Rockefeller called the move “proof that the White House controls the Intelligence Committee.”
(The remainder of the piece is here. Think Progress refers to an editorial in the LA Times, below:)
Advise and assent
February, 19 2006
THAT THE UNITED STATES Senate has a body called the Intelligence Committee is an irony George Orwell would have truly appreciated. In a world without Doublespeak, the panel, chaired by GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, would be known by a more appropriate name — the Senate Coverup Committee.
Although the committee is officially charged with overseeing the nation's intelligence-gathering operations, its real function in recent years has been to prevent the public from getting hold of any meaningful information about the Bush administration. Hence its never-ending delays of the probe into the bogus weapons intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. And its squelching, on Thursday, of an expected investigation into the administration's warrantless spying program.
(The rest of the LA Times piece is here.)
As chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Sen. Pat Roberts’s (R-KS) duty is “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 of the United States.” But on the most important intelligence issues facing Americans – such as the manipulation of Iraq intelligence, warrantless domestic spying, and torture – Roberts has transformed his committee into a “Senate Coverup Committee” for the Bush administration.
Roberts has made clear both his support for Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program and his contempt for those who question the program’s legality. On March 7, his committee once again abdicated its oversight responsibilities and “voted against an investigation of the president’s warrantless domestic spying program.” Roberts instead made a deal with the White House to “allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days.” Ranking Member Jay Rockefeller called the move “proof that the White House controls the Intelligence Committee.”
(The remainder of the piece is here. Think Progress refers to an editorial in the LA Times, below:)
Advise and assent
February, 19 2006
THAT THE UNITED STATES Senate has a body called the Intelligence Committee is an irony George Orwell would have truly appreciated. In a world without Doublespeak, the panel, chaired by GOP Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, would be known by a more appropriate name — the Senate Coverup Committee.
Although the committee is officially charged with overseeing the nation's intelligence-gathering operations, its real function in recent years has been to prevent the public from getting hold of any meaningful information about the Bush administration. Hence its never-ending delays of the probe into the bogus weapons intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq. And its squelching, on Thursday, of an expected investigation into the administration's warrantless spying program.
(The rest of the LA Times piece is here.)
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