Brilliant analysis. If you follow the link listed below, the entire article is clear.
Link to the Washington Post article
In the article on the 2nd page is the following:
MARK LOWENTHAL
Assistant director of central intelligence for analysis and production from 2002 to 2005; staff director of the House intelligence committee, 1995-97
The irony of the imbroglio over a CIA operational concept (it seems to have been less than an actual program) and briefing to Congress is that the CIA apparently went about this task methodically and deliberately. CIA leadership and officers recognized the daunting legal, logistic and operational issues involved in eliminating al-Qaeda leaders. Rather than bull ahead, they apparently did not put the concept into operation because important questions could not be answered.
Should Congress have been briefed? It is difficult to describe the concept as a "significant anticipated activity" as no activity was anticipated, ordered or in sight. There is also the broader question of whether intelligence oversight committees really want to be briefed on every nascent concept, regardless of its state of readiness. Under these terms, the number of briefings would escalate dramatically, leading to a blur of information and a declining ability on the part of Congress to tell the important programs from the dross. Moreover, it edges lawmakers closer to the line where they would be asked to give approval -- tacit or explicit -- for certain undertakings, something that Congress should not want and cannot carry out.
We have, most regrettably, entered an extremely partisan phase of intelligence oversight. It is difficult to avoid concluding that much of the angst expressed by Democratic members stems from a lingering defense of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her imperfect memory of what she was briefed on and when regarding the terrorist interrogation program. (Republican members also deserve some credit for refusing to let the Pelosi issue die.) Those of us who have worked under the current oversight system for the past 33 years cannot recall a more partisan, more dysfunctional era.
Maybe Obama can do a truce with the murderer Bin Laden
losercrats
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