Thomas Oliphant and David Brooks were talking about the Hayden hearings today. Both agreed that there was a certain agreement of sorts respecting how intelligence matters and such are discussed by the Senate. Simply put, it is not done openly. Brooks noted that it is dubious if one can suggest true oversight is involved here. Oliphant noted that both parties agreed to closed hearings where more of the details of the controversial issues will be dealt with, leading to leaks as the only way for the public to know about such centrally important matters.*
The information is not really kept secret, for instance, see stories by the NYT, Washington Post, USA Today, and now the Baltimore Sun:
The National Security Agency developed a pilot program in the late 1990s that would have enabled it to gather and analyze massive amounts of communications data without running afoul of privacy laws. But after the Sept. 11 attacks, it shelved the project -- not because it failed to work -- but because of bureaucratic infighting and a sudden White House expansion of the agency's surveillance powers, according to several intelligence officials.
The agency opted instead to adopt only one component of the program, which produced a far less capable and rigorous program. It remains the backbone of the NSA's warrantless surveillance efforts, tracking domestic and overseas communications from a vast databank of information, and monitoring selected calls.
Meanwhile, lots of backslapping (it was atypical that the gentlelady from Maryland actually refused to praise the non-dearly departed Porter Goss), but little real detail or blunt airing of the problems. We need new blood. Both agree Hayden is a serious choice that can do the job (that this is worthy of note is sad) but worry about the process overall. Oh, and about those who make the policy.
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* A rather haphazard way of doing things, since we aren't sure of the details or the conduits are targeted as disgruntled traitorous sorts. See, e.g., Rep. Murtha. He has recently been in the news suggesting (and with his connections, you listen) that a Pentagon probe into the death of Iraqi civilians last November in the Iraqi city of Haditha will show that U.S. Marines "killed innocent civilians in cold blood." It is felt he did this so the authorities cannot just toss things under the rug.
Anyway, I'm with Joshua Holland:
But the real culprits won't be punished. There are two damn many of them.
It's not just Bush and Cheney and the rest of the madmen who conjured up this war, it's the Democratic hawks that enabled them. It's Kerry and Lieberman and all the rest and, yes, even Jack Murtha.
And it's the cowardly scumbags who spun their glorious war narrative and convinced a whole bunch of ordinary citizens to jump on board. It's the Tom Friedmans and the Peter Beinarts who only realized this war was a mistake when it proved to be as disastrous as every other "war of choice." We told them that war is bloody hell and they called us "cowards" and "appeasers."
Apparently, in 2006 or so, we can hope for adults like Hayden to do something of a respectable job, after precious time and capital was spent on hacks and incompetents. Too f-ing late.