Sunday, July 15, 2007

In Intelligence World, A Mute Watchdog

Panel Reported No Violations for Five Years

By John Solomon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 15, 2007; A03

An independent oversight board created to identify intelligence abuses after the CIA scandals of the 1970s did not send any reports to the attorney general of legal violations during the first 5 1/2 years of the Bush administration's counterterrorism effort, the Justice Department has told Congress.

Although the FBI told the board of a few hundred legal or rules violations by its agents after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the board did not identify which of them were indeed legal violations. This spring, it forwarded reports of violations in 2006, officials said.

The President's Intelligence Oversight Board -- the principal civilian watchdog of the intelligence community -- is obligated under a 26-year-old executive order to tell the attorney general and the president about any intelligence activities it believes "may be unlawful." The board was vacant for the first two years of the Bush administration.

The WP Article is here. I'd comment but its so frustrating. Of course things don't work ... if you don't want them to work.

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