Briefings

The specifics of the Nancy Pelosi issue aside, it strikes me as totally ridiculous that the circle of people briefed on secret CIA activities is so narrow.

It can’t possibly be the operating assumption of the US government that members of congress and their senior staff are traitors. And if there’s something that genuinely needs to be kept secret for national security purposes, then you have to assume that honest and patriotic members of congress aren’t going to leak damaging information. But it’s clear that in the case of this waterboarding business, there was no real security need for all this operational secrecy. Instead, the Bush administration wanted to keep it secret because it was illegal and if people found out that it was happening they were likely to blow the whistle on the illegal torturing that was happening. But helping powerful people cover-up illegal activity is precisely what classification isn’t supposed to accomplish.

If you’re working in the executive branch and you’re saying to yourself “if we fully briefed all members of the intelligence committees of both houses of congress about what we’re about to do, they’d leak it to the press and there’d be hell to pay” you have to ask yourself “is that because what we’re doing is scandalous and illegal?” The idea that executive agencies can keep secrets from members who sit on the committees that oversee their activities makes a hash of the whole idea of oversight.